


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 5 






UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ^' 





OLD XORTH MEETING-IIOl'SE. ERECT. I713; KEMOL). lS.-^7; TAKEN DOWN 1S54. 



An Historical Discourse 

DELIVERED AT THE CELEBRATION Ol" THE 

TWO-HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 

OK THE FORMATION OF 

THE NORTH CHURCH, 

PORTSMOUTH, N.H., 
JULY 19, 1871, 



By rev. GEORGE Mr^^ADAMS, 

PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. 



PUBLISHED FOR THE CHURCH. 




PORTSMOUTH : 

FRANK W. ROBINSON. 

1871. 




MEMORIAL SERVICES. 



THE North Church in Portsmouth, N.H., celebrated 
the second centennial anniversary of its formation 
on the nineteenth and twentieth days of July, 1871. A 
Committee of Arrangements from the church and parish 
was appointed some weeks previously, to whom was given 
the entire charge of the celebration, and by whom were 
appointed sub-committees on Invitations, on Hospitality, 
on Music, and on Decorations. 

Invitations were sent to the former pastors who were 
living, and to former members and their families, so far as 
they could be ascertained, to be present ; also to many 
churches and clergymen in this city and other places. 
There were present of the former pastors of the church. 
Rev. Henry D. Moore of Cincinnati, O. ; Rev. Lyman 
Whiting, D.D., of Janesville, Wis., and Rev. William L. 
Gage of Hartford, Conn. ; and a large number of former 
members and friends of the church, and clergymen from 
abroad. 



6 Memorial Services. 

The Meeting-house was elaborately and beautifully deco- 
rated with evergreen and flowers ; festoons and wreaths 
were suspended from the ceiling and the galleries, the 
organ, and the ends of the auditory ; and in the recess 
back of the pulpit was an emblematic device, with the 
name of the church, the date of its organization, and the 
names of the pastors. 

The singing was by a volunteer choir of about forty 
singers, conducted by the organist of the parish ; and con- 
sisted of anthems and ancient chorals and fugues. In 
some of the tunes the congregation joined, and the effect 
was very grand. 

The Memorial Services were as follows : — 



WEDNESDAY, AT 2.30, P.M. 



VOLUNTARY ON THE ORGAN. 



^/ 



ANTHEM. 

" Sound the Loud Timhrel." 

SELECTIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 

Psalms Ixxvii. i, 5, 11-15; Ixxviii. 2-7, 72; and cxxii. 

Read by Rev. Henry D. Moore, from the Bible which belonged 

TO Samuel Haines, first Deacon of the Church. The Bible 

WAS of the Geneva version, printed in _j;699. 



Memorial Services. 
PRAYER. 

15 Y Ri:V. WILLIAM L. GAGE. 



HYMN. 

HY Tire CHOIR AND CONGREGATION. —Tunk, Mear. 

Oh ! 'twas a joyful sound to hear 

Our tribes devoutly say, 
*' Up, Israel, to the temple haste. 

And keep your festal day ! " 

At Salem's courts we must appear, 

With our assembled powers, 
In strong and beauteous order ranged, 

Like her united towers. 

Oh, pray we then for Salem's peace ! 

For they shall prosperous be. 
Thou holy city of our God, 

Who bear true love to thee. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

BY REV. GEORGE M. ADAMS, 

TWKI.I'TII PASTOK OF THE CHI'RCH. 



In the midst of the discourse the pastor paused, ant! 
Rev. Edward A. Rand read, and the choir and congrega- 
tion sang, to the tuno of Old Hundred, — 



Memorial Services. 

All people that on earth do dwell, 
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice ; 

Him serve with fear; his praise forth tell; 
Come ye before him and rejoice. 

Oh ! enter, then, his gates with praise ; 

Approach with joy his courts unto ; 
Praise, laud, and bless his name always, 

For it is seemly so to do. 



PRAYER. 

BY REV. T)R. LYMAN WHITING. 



HYMN. 

Read by Rev. William W. Dow of Waterford, Me., sung by 
THE Choir and Congregation. — Tune, St. Martin's. 

Let children hear the mighty deeds, 

Which God performed of old, — 
Which in our younger years we saw, 

And which our fathers told. 

Our lips shall tell them to our sons, 

And they again to theirs ; 
That generations yet unborn 

May teach them to their heirs. 

Thus they shall learn, in God alone 

Their hope securely stands ; 
That they may ne'er forget his works, 

But practise his commands. 



Mcnioria I Services. 
BENEDICTION. 

1!V REV. GEORGE E. ADAMS, D.D. 



On Wednesday Evening, at 7 o'clock, there was a 
social levee and festival in the Chapel on Middle Street ; 
the company consisting of the guests of the church and 
members of most of the families of the parish, — two 
tickets being furnished to each family. A blessing was 
asked by Rev. Dr. C. W. Wallace of Manchester, N.H. ; 
after which, a sumptuous collation, provided by the ladies, 
was partaken of. At 8 o'clock the doors were thrown open 
to all ; and a large party enjoyed an hour of social converse 
with old friends and new. The levee was closed with 
prayer by Rev. J. H. Stearns of Epping, N.H. 

On Thursday Morning, at 10 o'clock, there were ser- 
vices in the meeting-house, consisting mainly of addresses 
and reminiscences by former pastors, interspersed with 
singing, as follows : — 

SINGING. 
" Strike the Cymbal." 



PRAYER. 

BV REV. EPHRAIM W. ALLEN OF HAVERHILL, MASS. 



SCRIPTURE READING. 

I'SALM cxxvi. 
From Rev. Joshua Moodey's Bible, by Rev. S. II. Wi.nklev of Boston. 



lO Memorial Services. 

HYMN. 

Read by Rev. Wiilliam A. Rand of Seabrook, N.H. — Tune, Lenox. 

Ye tribes of Adam, join 

With heaven and earth and seas, 
And offer notes divine 
To your Creator's praise : 
Ye holy throng of angels bright, 
In worlds of light, begin the song. 



ADDRESS. 

BY REV. HENRY D. MOORE. 



ADDRESS. 

BY REV. LYMAN WHITING, D.D. 



SINGING. 

" The Lord will comfort Zion.' 



ADDRESS. 

BY REV. WILLIAM L. GAGE. 



ADDRESS. 

BY REV. RUFUS W. CLARK, JuN., 

RECTOR OF ST. JOHN's CHURCH IN THIS CITY, SON OF THE EIGHTH PASTOR OF THU CHURCH. 



Memorial Services. i i 

SINGING. 
Ancient Fugue. 
From the third heaven, where God resides, — 

Tiiat holy, happy place, — 
The New Jerusalem comes down, 
Adorned with shininji; grace. 

How long, dear Saviour ! oh, how long 

Shall this bright hour delay .'' 
Fly swifter round, ye wheels of time ! 

And bring the welcome day. 



ADDRESS. 

BY HON. EZRA A. STEVENS OF MALDEN, MASS. 



POEM. — "A Tea-Party in the Old North Church," 

BY REV. EDWARD A. RAND OF BOSTON. 



ADDRESS. 

BY JOHN STAYERS, ESQ. 



ADDRESS. 

BY REV. GEORGE E. ADAMS, D.D., OK ORANGE, N.J. 



1 2 Memorial Services. 

HYMN. 

BY THE CHOIR AND CONGREGATION. — Tune, Peterborough. 

O Lord ! our fathers oft have told, 

In our attentive ears, 
Thy wonders in their days performed. 

And elder times than theirs. 

P'or not their courage nor tlieir sword 

To them salvation gave ; 
Nor strength that from unequal force 

Their fainting troops could save. 

As thee, their God, our fathers owned, 

Thou art our sovereign King : 
Oh, therefore, as thou didst to them, 

To us deliverance bring! 



PRAYER AND BENEDICTION. 

BY REV. GEORGE E. SANBORN OF HARTFORD, CONN. 



On Thursday Afternoon, in the meeting-house, the 
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered : — 

SCRIPTURE READING AND INTRODUCTORY 
REMARKS. 

BY REV. WILLIAM L. GAGE. 



PRAYER, REMARKS, AND DISTRIBUTION OF 
THE BREAD. 

BY REV. LYMAN WHITING, D.D. 



Moiiorial Services. i 3 

PRAYER, REMARKS, AND DISTRIBUTION OF 
THE CUP. 

BY REV. HENRY U. MOORE. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

BY THE PASTOR. 



HYMN. 

SUNG BY THE CONGREGATION. 

Now to the Lord, who makes us know 
The wonders of his dying love, 

Be humble honors paid below, 

And strains of nobler praise above. 

'Twas he wlio cleansed our foulest sins, 
And washed us in his precious blood ; 

'Tis he who makes us priests and kings, 
And brings us rebels near to God. 

To Jesus, our atoning Priest, 

To Jesus, our eternal King, 
Be everlasting power confessed !' 

Let every tongue his glory sing. 



BENEDICTION. 




HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 



WE attempt, this afternoon, to trace the history of this 
church from that summer's day in 1671, when the 
church was organized, to the present time. 

It will be interesting, however, to glance at the religious 
history of the Piscataqua Colony for the half-century which 
preceded the formation of the first church in it. 

The colony was planted in the spring of 1623 ; but the 
number of the colonists was quite small for the first eight 
years, perhaps not exceeding twenty or thirty. ^ In 1631, 
fifty or si.xty new immigrants arrived, including twenty-two 
women. The custom of the other colonies in New Ener- 
land would lead us to suppose that now, with numbers 
approaching a hundred, the colony would have its regular 
religious institutions ; but there is no evidence of any 
movement in that direction till seven years later. 

It is to be remembered, in explanation of this delay, that 



' Hubbard, chap. xx.\i., says there were only three houses here in 1631. 



1 6 Historical Discourse. 

the settlement was less compact than the most of the other 
colonies. The first landing had been made at what is now 
Odiorne's Point, three miles from this place. There the 
manor-house, afterwards called " Mason's Hall," was built, 
and salt-works and fisheries were established. 

The " Great House" was erected in 163 1 in this vicinity. 
Its site is now the corner of Court and Water Streets. The 
larger number of the colonists were divided between these 
two localities, three miles apart. Some of the settlers 
were also on Great Island, and some, probably, within tl>e 
present territory of Greenland and Newington. 

But no doubt there must be added to any other reasons 
for the delay in establishing public religious worship in the 
colony, this weighty one, — that the minds of the first set- 
tlers were not much inclined towards religion. This has 
been the current opinion ; and there are some hints in con- 
temporary writers which tend to confirm the tradition. 
Thomas Dudley, afterwards governor of the Massachu- 
setts Colony, writing in March, 1631, from Boston, to the 
Countess of Lincoln, in England, says, in speaking of some 
unruly spirits in their colony, " Others, also, afterwards 
heareing of men of their owne disposition, which were 
planted at Pascataway, went from us to them, whereb}', tho' 
our numbers were lessened, yet we accounted ourselves 
nothing weakened by their removcall." ^ Gov. Winthrop 
makes a like complaint against " those of Pascataquack," 
saying that " it was their usual manner (some of them) to 
countenance all such lewd persons as fled from us to 
them." -' 

The Puritan governors may not have been entirely free 

- N.II. Hist. Coll., iv. 232. » Winthrop, i. 269. 



Historical Discourse. 17 

from prejudice in their judgment of this colony, but here 
and there an incident has been preserved which makes it 
hard for us to combat their representations. 

We are told that, in December, 1633, "one Cowper, of 
Pascataquack, going to an island upon the Lord's Day to 
fetch some sack to be drank at the Great House, he and a 
boy coming back in a canoe (being both drunk) were 
driven -to sea, and never heard of after." * The author of 
" The Annals of Portsmouth " is authority for the well-known 
story that a reverend divine, at a later day, preaching here 
against the depravity of the times, said, " You have for- 
saken the pious habits of your forefathers, who left the ease 
and comfort which they possessed in their native land, and 
came to this howling wilderness to enjoy without molesta- 
tion the exercise of their pure principles of religion." He 
was interrupted by one of the congregation, who said, " Sir, 
you entirely mistake the matter : our ancestors did not 
come here on account of their religion, but to fish and 
trade." It cannot be doubted that the religious and moral 
tone of the colony was very different from that of the 
Plymouth and Bay Colonies. 

The first house of worship in Portsmouth was erected as 
early as 1638. It stood where the house of Mrs. John K. 
Pickering now stands, on Pleasant Street. The first minis- 
ter was Rev. Richard Gibson. He was of the Church of 
England, and, no doubt, represented the religious views of 
the leading inhabitants at that time. He officiated in the 
chapel in August, 1638, and continued here as late as 
November, 1640.'' 

■• Winthrop, i. 120. 

'' Dr. George G. Brewster, in Portsmouth Journal, July 8, 1854. 15ut 
Folsom's History of Saco and Biddeford says, " At the close of 1640, 
3 



1 8 Historical Discourse. 

On the 25th of May, 1640, twenty of the inhabitants " of 
the lower end of Pascataquack " conveyed by deed to 
Thomas Walford and Henry Sherburne, " Church-wardens 
of this Parish," and their successors, the " parsonage house 
with a chappell thereto united, as alsoe fiftie acres of glebe 
land." "And forasmuch," the deed continues, "as the said pa- 
rishioners have founded and built. ye said parsonadge house, 
chaple with the appurtinances at their owne proper costs 
and charges, and have made choyse of Mr. Richard Gibson 
to be ye first parson of ye said parsonadge, soe likewise 
whensoever the said parsonage happen to be voyd by death 
of ye incumbent, or his time agreed upon expired, that then 
the patronadge pr.sently and nomination of ye parson to be 
vested and remane in ye power and election of ye said pa- 
rishioners or ye greater part of them forever." The glebe 
land conveyed by this deed was in two parcels. Thirty- 
eight acres of it was " thus to be taken, that is to say, ye full 
tenth part of ye fresh marsh lying at ye head of Strawberry 
Banke Creeke, and that being meeted and bounded to take 
the remainder of the thirty-eight acres next adjoyning to ye 
said marsh." Strawberry-Bank Creek is still known as " the 
Creek ; " and the land here given lay probably some distance 
west from the creek bridge. The smaller and more valuable 

or early in the following year, Mr. Gibson removed (from the vicinity of 
Saco) to Portsmouth." The deed of 1640 shows that Folsom cannot be quite 
right. 

Winthrop (i. 327), under date Feb. 20, 1639-40, speaks of " some gentle- 
men at the (Pascataquack) river's mouth, who had lately set up common 
prayer." 

In an inventory of goods at Piscataway, made July, 1635, are the following : 
"For Religious Use: i great Bible, 12 service-books, i pewter flagon, i 
communion cup and cover of silver, 2 fine table-cloths, 2 napkins." — Prov. 
Papers of N. H., i. 1 16. 



Historical Disccmrse. 19 

portion of the glebe was twelve acres in what is now the 
central part of the city. It is thus described in the town 
records : " The twelve ackers of land belonging unto the 
meeting house doth take its beginning from the great pine 
by the sayd house, west and by south towards Goodman 
Humpkins, his hous which he bought of Roger Knight, full 
thirty polls : from the end of the sayd thirty polls, up the 
hill, north and by west, full fifty-six poll : from the sayd fifty- 
six polls end diu east forty-six, unto a forked pine marked 
with three noches : from the said forked pine, south and 
by east full forty-four polls, unto the befor menshoned 
great pine." As the great pine and the forked pine and 
Goodman Humpkins's house are no longer available land- 
marks, the glebe maybe described as a square lot of land, of 
which the boundary ran from the east corner of this church, 
up Congress Street, to a point a little beyond Chestnut 
Street, so as to include the Kearsarge House ; thence 
seutherly, parallel with Chestnut Street, to the South Mill- 
pond ; thence easterly, passing this side the Universalist 
Church, to Pleasant Street, and up Pleasant Street to the 
east corner of this house. 

The glebe land was in later years controlled by the town, 
which was then identical with the parish ; and early in the 
eighteenth century the larger part of this twelve acres was 
disposed of upon long leases, very little to the advantage of 
church or parish. 

After Mr. Gibson left Portsmouth, the chapel and glebe 
seem to have been used, without any question or protest, in 
maintaining such form of worship as the majority of the 
inhabitants, that is of the parish, saw fit ; and that was the 
Confrreirational form. 



20 Historical Discourse. 

But some have questioned whether, under the deed, the 
chapel and glebe ought not to have been reserved exclu- 
sively for Episcopal services. The intention of the persons 
who subscribed the deed of 1640, can at this day be learned 
from two sources only, — from the language of the deed, 
and from the acts of the subscribers. The deed provides 
that the majority of the parishioners shall choose the " par- 
son." This rule seems to have been followed. But, it is 
said, the clergyman who was officiating when the deed was 
given was of the Church of England, and the leading men 
of this colony were attached to that form of worship. This 
is very true. But there is no evidence that all who sub- 
scribed the deed were attached to the Church of England. 
It is, on the contrary, altogether probable, that some of them 
were not, and that the deed was purposely drawn so as to 
lay a foundation for public worship in the colony, but to 
leave the choice of the clergyman, and so, of course, the 
form of worship, to be determined by the vote of the in- 
habitants from time to time. But there is another and 
very important source of information as to the intention of 
the subscribers to the deed ; that is, their own acts with re- 
spect to the form of worship maintained in the colony. 
Twenty men signed the deed. They conveyed the chapel 
and glebe to two church-wardens. One of the wardens 
was a subscriber to the deed: the other was not. Adding 
to the twenty subscribers the warden who was not a sub- 
scriber, we have twenty-one men concerned in the deed, 
probably the entire adult male population of the colony 
who were not servants. 

There is, on the town records, a list of the inhabitants 
of Portsmouth, who, in 1659, subscribed to the maintenance 



Hislorical Discourse. 2 i 

of Mr. Moodey ; and there is a similar list of the subscribers 
in 167 1. Of the twenty-one men who were concerned in 
the deed of the glebe, five had died before 1659 ! o^ie had 
gone from the country ; the names of eight others do not 
appear in a list of the inhabitants in the year 1657, and 
these eight therefore had, no doubt, either died or removed 
from Portsmouth. Seven only of the twenty-one were liv- 
ing here in 1659. O^ these seven, six, including both 
the church-wardens named in the deed, subscribed to the 
maintenance of Mr. Moodey. It is uncertain whether 
the seventh subscribed or not. In 167 1, three only of the 
twenty-one connected with the deed of thirty years before 
were living in Portsmouth : two of these subscribed then to 
Mr. Moodey's support. The third refused to do so : he had 
subscribed in 1659, and had previously been active in 
measures for obtaining Congregational ministers to preach 
in the chapel. The fact, that, almost without exception, the 
men who gave the chapel and glebe, so far as they were 
still here, co-operated in sustaining Congregational worship 
on that foundation, does not show of necessity that they 
were not adherents to the Church of England ; but it does 
show that they assented to the use which was made of the 
glebe, and it implies that they saw in that use no perver- 
sion of the gift.^ 

In 1641 Portsmouth and Dover put themselves under the 
jurisdiction of Massachusetts ; and in May, 1642, the au- 
thorities of Massachusetts suspended, so far as these towns 
were concerned, the law restricting the right of suffrage to 
members of the church, and provided that "each inhabitant 

*' Two of the signers of the deed (;ip[)arently) became afterwards members 
of this church. 



2 2 Historical Discourse. 

of Piscataqua who was previously free " should have " the 
liberty of a freeman in the management of municipal affairs 
and election of deputies to the General Court, though he 
be not a church-member." '' 

Mr. Gibson was, so far as is known, the only Episcopal 
clergyman who officiated here in the early history of the 
colony. Soon after he left, Mr. James Parker, who was of 
the Congregational church, but who had not before been a 
minister, came by invitation of the town, and preached with 
much success. Gov. Winthrop says, in December, 1642, 
" those of the lower part of the river Pascataquack invited 
one Mr. James Parker of Weymouth, a godly man and a 
scholar, one who had been many years a deputy for the 
public court, to be their minister. He, by advice of divers 
of the magistrates and elders, accepted the call, and went 
and taught among them this winter ; and it pleased God to 
give great success to his labors, so as above forty of them, 
whereof the most had been very profane, and some of them 
professed enemies to the way of our churches, wrote to the 
magistrates and elders, acknowledging the sinful course 
they had lived in, and bewailing the same, and blessing God 
for calling them out of it, and earnestly desiring that Mr. 
Parker might be settled amongst them." But Mr. Win- 
throp adds, " most of them fell back again in time, embra- 
cing this present world." '^ Mr. Parker probably remained 
here about three years, as a letter of his to Gov. Winthrop 
is preserved, dated, " Straw Berrie Bancke the 28th uf the 
5th '45 ; " '* and, by another letter, he appears to have been 
at Barbadoes in April, 1646. It is not known who preached 

^ Felt's Eccles. Hist, of New England. ** Winthrop, ii 93. 

" IV. Mass. Hist. Coll., vii. 441, fif. Hutchinson Papers, 155. 



Historical Discourse. 23 

here from 1646 to 1653 ; but the town records have entries 
respecting " the rate for the minister's wages," &c., which 
indicate that rehgious services were not altogether sus- 
pended through those years. 

The number of inhabitants in this plantation, including 
the present territory of Portsmouth, Newcastle, Rye, 
Greenland, and Newington, had risen in 1653 to about two 
hundred. 

The third preacher in Portsmouth, of whom we have 
knowledge, was Mr. James Brown. It stands in the town 
records, that, " at a publique meeting held the eleventh of 
Aprill, 1655, the inhabitants do generally acknowledge that 
they are willing that Mr. Browne should continue their 
minister as he hath been, if he be so pleased." Mr. Brown 
was from Newbury, of which he had been one of the first 
settlers, having come over from Southampton in 1635. He 
preached in Portsmouth probably from 1654 or earlier to 
1656. He was, Hke Mr. Parker, not an ordained minister ; 
and it is not known that he continued to preach after his 
service in Portsmouth. Both Mr. Parker and Mr. Brown 
were laymen of mature years and approved Christian 
character, who were induced to supply for a time this 
destitute field. 

The town records give account of repeated efforts to 
secure a minister during the two years after Mr. Brown left. 
Oct, 7, 1656: "It is agreed upon that Henry Sherburne 
is to goe to the westward in behalf of the whole town to 
seek and inquire for an able and sufficient minister, the 
town paying him for his pains." Oct. 27, 1656: "It is 
agreed upon this town meeting and voted to send to Mr. 
Samuel Dudlow to give us a visit to treat with him to bee 



24 Historical Discourse. 

our minister." Nov. lo, 1656: "This day the townsmen 
have agreed with Mr. Dudlow to be our minister, and to 
come unto us this next spring, and to have fourscore 
pounds the yeare." This was Rev. Samuel Dudley of 
Exeter, son of Gov. Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts. If 
he came to Portsmouth in the spring of 1657, according to 
the agreement just named, his stay was brief He had 
been preaching some years at Exeter, and remained there 
till his death in 1683. In September, 1657, "The selectmen 
sent Henrie Sherburne to goe to Mr. Woster with a call 
from the towne to be our minister, in case the town and 
he can agree, he giving us a visit." This was probably 
Rev. William Worcester of Salisbury, Mass. ; but he did 
not permanently leave his parish there. 

All the ministers in Portsmouth, down to this time, had 
preached in the chapel on Pleasant Street. In August, 
1657, ^" the town authorized the selectmen to build a new 
meeting-house, which was erected on the rise of ground a 
few rods south-east from the South Milldam, on the spot 
where the house of Francis S. Roberts now stands. 

In Rockingham County Records, vol. ii. folio 34, is the 
following document : '^ — 

1'' In 1657, the citizens of Portsmouth above twenty-one years of age num- 
bered eighty-two, indicatmg a population of perhaps three hundred. 

11 This agreement is dated 2d loth Mo. 1659, i.e., Dec. 2, 1659. I suspect 
some mistake in this date. For Pendleton, the Cutts, Sherburne, and Seavey 
were the selectmen, authorized in 1657 to build the meeting-house ; and they 
were not selectmen in 1659. Moreover the town records, under date of 
March i, 1658-59, speak of difficulty with an individual, " conserninge some 
affronts in giving distast conserninge placing the neighbors in the seats in the 
new meeting-house." 

This meetinghouse was not built without some difference of opinion in the 
town. In the records of the General Court of Massachusetts, May 6, 1657, it 



Historical Discourse. 



-'D 



" Articles of agreem' made w'l' Jn. Ilucliins of y" one party & 
CapJ Brya. Pendleto" Jolin Cuti &: Rich : Cutt Hen : Sherburne 
W"' Seauy in y* behalfe of the Towne of portsmouch y" other 
partie fo' y* building of a Meeting houfe & repairing y* old meet- 
ing houfe & to finifh it & fitt it up for a Dwelling houfe fo' our 
Minister. The Meeting houfe to be made & finished of thefe 
demcncons following — 40 ffeete square & i6 ffeete wall plate 
high — ^A flat Ruff & substanciall turrett w"' a gallery about it. 
substanciall Grownd fills, wall plates & fide posts of oake. A 
maine piller w"' braces of oake to be futably carved & y' Arch 
worke. A piller to y* Root!" w"' fufficient braces, the fides to be 
of Loggs 9 Inches thick, let into y® fide posts w*" a rabbet — 12 
windowes well fitted 3 fubstanciall doers, a complete pulpet to 
reach y* two midle posts, the fides of y" houfe plained 6 foot high 
y* flowers to be lade w"' oke sleepers. &: to be finished with 
planke Alfoe y* s^ Huching hath engaged hemfelfe to repair the 
old meeting houfe & to make it a fit dwelling houfe in manner as 
followeth (i) 3 grownd cills to Lay 2 at y'' sides of one p' of y* 
houfe & one at y* end of y* same. (2'*) to board y" out fide of 
y* houfe fro fill to plate & y" gable ends, & y" boards to be 
champard. (3'^) to fitt timber worke for four chimneys. (4'^) to 
make 2 p' of staires one to y" chambers y* oth' to y" celler. (5'') 
A Garret flower & window at y* east end of y® chamber. (6'^) all 
dores & carpenters worke for finnifliing &: cielling the Inside to 

stands: " In answer to the petition of several inhabitants of Portsmoutli, it is 
ordered in answer to this petition for the settling of a minister, as also meeting- 
house at Portsmouth and for prevention of further inconveniences touching 
the same, that the jietitioners nominate and choose one man, the rest of the 
inhabitants another, and the County Court at Dover a third, who are hereby 
authorized to goe on the place, and to heare what on both sides shall be al- 
ledged in the premises, and determine the same as they shall judge best condu- 
cing to the peace and welfare of the town." — Pitrz: Papers of xW //., i. 22S, 
from Mass. Records. 
4 



26 Historical Discourse. 

y® plate and fitting )* place for y* fower brick chimneys & cut y* 
coller beame «S; make dore wayes in y* chambers «S^ dores from 
y*" wall plate to y* garret floores, ffor w*^*' s** worke the pties abouef* 
doe bind themfelves in behalfe of y* Towne to pay to y' f' Hutch- 
ins 140 : pounds in shop goods purtion & some money to y* uallue 
of 5 pounds & cattle In witnifs whereof we all have fet to o'' 
hands this 2^: lo'l* mo 1659 The said pay before exprefsed is to 
be p*^ according to time as follow"* To say when y'' old meeting 
houfe is repaired & }* timber fo' y* new meeting house brought in 
place there is on fowerth part to be p*^ to y*' workman (2'^) w° y" 
new houfe is all framed then one quarter p* is to be p*^ more (3'^) 
when the houfe is raifed & couered then is y® third part to be p'' & 
Lastly when it is finished the last paym' is to be p** to y® said John 
Huchins to all w'^'* we have Joyntly sett to o"' hands the day and 
yeare before exprefsed. the boards nayles & plankes Loggs and 
Timber is to be brought in place at y* charge of y* Towne. 

Witnefs John Huggin Brian pendleton ) Hen : Sherbure ) 
Edw : Melcher John Cutt >- W=" Seauy I 

Rich : Cutt ) 

John Huchinson IH his marke." 

Not far from the time when the new meeting-house at 
the South Milldam was completed, a young man, twenty- 
six years of age, came to Portsmouth to preach, who was to 
have a much larger share in shaping the religious character 
of the town than any who had preceded him. 

Joshua Moodey was born in Wales in 1632, and was 
brought to this country in the following year by his father, 
William Moodey. ^'^ The family spent a year or two in Ips- 

'- I am much indebted for the early history of Joshua Moodey to Bio- 
graphical Sketches of the Moody Family, by C, C. P. Moody, and to a 
manuscript lecture on Joshua Moodey, by the late Rev. Tobias H. Miller. 



Historital Discourse. 27 

wich, and removed to Newbury with the first settlers of 
that town in 1635. Amon^ these settlers, William 
Moodey was the blacksmith or the saddler of the colony ; 
and it is not unlikely that he united the two trades. His 
wife's name was Sarah. 

Joshua Moodey received his early education at Newlmry, 
graduated at Harvard College in 1653, and studied theol- 
ogy. While at Cambridge, he had made a public profession 
of religion, and joined the church in that town. Mr. 
Moodey probably came to Portsmouth near the close of the 
year 1658, or early in 1659.^' Mr. Moodey, while at Cam- 
bridge, had formed acquaintance in the family of " a good 
man called [Edward] Collins, the Deacon of the church." 
There were five sons and three daughters in the family. 
One of the sons, named John, graduated at the college in 
the year in which Mr. Moodey entered, and was afterward 
a celebrated preacher in London, where he looked after the 
interests of the Massachusetts Colony." Another son, 
Nathaniel, was the "much-esteemed minister" at Middle- 
town, Conn. The oldest daughter, Sibyl, became the wife 
of Rev. John Whiting, first pastor of the Second Church in 
Hartford. But our interest, as was Mr. Moodey's, is spe- 
cially for a younger daughter, named for her mother, Martha. 
She came to Portsmouth, probably in the year 1660, a bride 
twenty-one years of age, perhaps the first minister's wife 
that Portsmouth had seen. The housekeeping began in 

'•^ Adams's Annals makes Mr. Moodey commence his labors here in the 
beginning of 1658; and all later historians have copied his statement. But 
the date of the subscription for his support, in the town records, is " 14 : 12 
mo. 1658," i.e., Ft'I) 14, 1658, expressed, of course, in old .style, which, in the 
present method of dating, is Feb. 14, 1659. 

'■• Hutchinson I'.ipcrs, 4J5. 



28 Historical Discourse. 

the parsonage, into which the chapel on Pleasant Street 
had been converted.'^ 

The congregation increased from year to year under Mr. 
Moodey's ministrations. When he had been here two 
years, the meeting-house was crowded, and it was proposed 
to put in a gallery.^^ Two years more passed before the 
change was actually made; but in April, 1664, the select- 
men agreed with Henry Sayward of York, to repair and 
finish the meeting-house, build galleries, and hang the bell ; 
and the work was promptly completed. But in a few years 
the house was crowded again. 

In 1669, there was granted to " Mr. ffryer '^ the towne's 
right of twentie foote square of land between the path and 
Mr. Coming's ffeence neere the meeting-house to sett up a 
house and keep wood in for to accommodate himself and 
family in winter time when he comes to meeting." This 
record gives a suggestion of certain peculiar structures near 
the meeting-house, which were common in New England 
one or two centuries ago. There was no fire in the meet- 
ing-house ; and, in severe winter weather, those who came 
from a distance needed some refuge in the intermission be- 
tween the services. Some, of course, went to neighboring 

1" This building bad passed tbrougb repeated cbanges. First it was de- 
scribed as a " parsonage house with chapel attached," when the number of 
inhabitants required but narrow accommodations for public worship. Then 
later, all of it appears to have been used for a chapel, or meeting-house, as the 
colony increased ; and at length, when the meeting-house at the South Mill- 
dam was built, this was changed again into a dwelling-house for the pastor. 

1" Sept. 25, 1662. At a town-meeting, " ordered that a cage be made to 
punish such as sleepe or take tobacco on the Lord's Day out of the meeting, 
in time of publique exercise." 

1" Probably Nathaniel Fryer of Newcastle. 



Historical Discourse. 29 

houses of their friends. Others built for themselves what 
were called " Sabba-day Houses," or " Noon Houses." 
Sometimes four or more persons united in building one 
with four rooms, each ten or twelve feet square, and contain- 
ing a fire-place. On sabbath morning, the family came 
early, built a fire, and warmed themselves before the morn- 
ing service. At noon they returned to their little room, 
with invited friends, to eat their luncheon with cider from 
the cellar, to discuss the morning sermon, to read the Bible 
or some other religious book, and perhaps to unite in prayer. 
At the close of the services of the afternoon, if the weather 
was severely cold, they returned to the noon-house to warm 
themselves before going home. The fire was then extin- 
guished, the saddle-bags gathered up, and the house locked 
up till the next sabbath."* 

It was not till Mr. Moodey had preached here twelve 
years, and had gathered a congregation which could hardly 
find room in the meeting-house, that steps were taken to- 
wards the formation of a church. The oft-quoted " account 
of the gathering ye Church of Christ in Portsmouth," which 
may still be read in Mr. Moodey's clear hand in the first 
volume of the records of this church, is too important to 
be omitted or condensed here. It is a model of simple 
Christian narrative. 

"Portsmouth, N.E. Afino 1671. 

" After many serious endeavors well, had been used by ye then 
minister of ye place (since ye pastor of ye church there) in pub- 

1^ These details are condensed from an Historical Discourse by Rev. 
George II. Morss of Townscnd, Mass. One of these relics of the olden time 
is still standing at 'I'ownsend, occuijicd as a clweliing-hoiisc. 



30 Historical Disco7irse. 

liq. and by severall of ye Inhabitants in Private ; ye Lord (without 
whose p.sence and Blessing man builds but in vaine) was pleased 
at length to lay ye Foundation of an House for himself in this 
place, 

"Of ye Beginning and progress whereof here foUowes a briefe 
but true Account. 

"In ye Winter Time of ye foregoing yeare (viz. 1670) there 
were severall meetings together of ye minister with sev'll. of ye 
Inhabitants (who were Members of other Congregations in ye 
Country and by providence setded Inhabitants in Portsmo.) to 
discourse and confer about yt. greate worke & Necessary Duty of 
entering into Church Fellowship, yt. themselves might enjoy all 
ye ordinances of ye Lord's House, & theyr little ones also might 
bee laid neer God's Altars & brought up under ye Instruction and 
Discipline of his House. Nor could they yt. were members of 
other churches any longer satisfy themselves to live without ye 
enjoyment of those edifying & strengthening ordinances yt. theyr 
soules had in some measure formerly tasted ye good of, tho. now 
for some yeares been kept from ; Others also, well affected to ye 
worke, professed theyr longings after those fatt and marrowed 
things in God's house, & theyr readiness to joyne with ym. in 
helping to build, if they should be found fitt for ye same. 

" Hereupon sev'll. assembled in Private &: sought ye Lord by 
fasting and prayer yt. hee would discover to us a right way (there 
being many feares & discouragements before us) for ourselves & 
little ones (Ezra 8:21, 22, 23), & wee hope wee may say hee was 
entreated of us, as ye Event hath in some measure (blessed bee 
his name) made manifest. 

" It was agreed yt. those wch. were in Full Communion with 
other Congreg'ns. already, should acquaint ye respective churches 
to wch. they did belong with ye motion on foot, & desire theyr 
Advice, approbation, countenance ^: prayers therein, wch. was 



Historical Discourse. 31 

accordingly done. There was a meeting appointed in a private 
House, wherein all that had given in theyr names for ye worke 
were to assemble, & to rondV. each to other a reason of ye hope 
yt. was in thcni, by giving account of theyr Knowledge & Experi- 
ence, yt. so they might bee satisfied one in another, & bee capable 
of joyning together as members of ye same body. Severall dales 
were spent in this exercise, to ye mutuall refreshing & endearing 
of ye speakers, & to ye awakening &: warning of others of ye 
Neighbors that were (as any had liberty to bee) present at those 
exercises. 

" In Fine, there was another meeting, to enquire whether all 
that had made Relations were so satisfied one in another as to 
theyr Relations & Conversations, as that they could with Free- 
dome of Spirit joyne in a body together, &: unite in ye same So- 
ciet}', according to ye Rules of Christ. What ground of scruple 
lay upon ye spirits of any with reference to one or other of the 
fore-mentioned Company, was lovingly and plainly propounded, 
& Satisfaction was Ingenuously tendered on ye one Party & ac- 
cepted by ye other. 

" Furthermore, wee did discourse of & discov'r. our Apprehen- 
sions & perswasions concerning ye Order & Discipline of ye 
House of God, cS: there was a unanimous Consent unto what had 
been publiq.ly dd. in many Sermons in ye latter end of ye yeare, 
1670 & ye Beginning of ye yeare 167 1 from Ezek. 43 : 10, 11, 12, 
about ye Lawes, ordinances & Formes of ye House, with ye goings 
out thereof & ye comings in thereof. Of such high concernment 
did & doe we account it to bee for ye Peace «Sc Edification of ye 
whole, yt. both Pastor «S: People should in those matters (at least 
for ye substance, & as neer as may bee in mere Circumstantialls 
also) speake ye same things. Hereupon there were some ap- 
pointed to acquaint ye Civill Authority (according to ye law of ye 
Country) with wliat was thought on among us, yt. by the good 
likeing & Incouragem't. of ye same wee might make an orderly 



32 Historical Discourse. 

& comfortable procedure in ye worke before us, which being 
don 

" Severall churches were sent to and intreated to send theyr 
Elders & Messengers upon ye wch. \vs. ap- 

pointed for ye Gathering of ye Church & Ordination of officers 
therein. The church of Cambridge was sent to, because ye Pas- 
tor did belong to that church, they brought his Dismission. Also 
ye church of Ipswich, Rowley, & Hampton. 

" They met accordingly, & Govt Leveret came also. He yt. 
was Appointed for Pastor preacht. in ye morning out of Ezek. 48 : 
ult. After sermon some Intermission ws. made, & on theyr meet- 
ing again, the Pastor with all those who were to be the Beginners 
of the church, made theyr Relations, & those who were Members 
of other churches had theyr dismissions (& all made theyr Rela- 
tions whether members or non-members) & they wr. approved of 
by ye Messengers of churches, & Imbodied into a church by an 
explicite covenant. Then ye Pastor was ordained after ye unani- 
mous vote of ye church for ye choice of him, & liberty given to 
all ye Congreg'n. to object if they had ought to say. He was 
ordained by severall of ye Elders (at ye desire of ye church) Mr. 
Cobbet giving him his charge, & Mr. Wheelwright the right hand 
of fifellowship. 

" Then ye Pastor ordained Sam. Haines Deacon, with imposi- 
tion of Hands & pray'r. A Psalm was sung, & ye Congregation 
dismissed by ye Pastor with a prayer and Blessing. 

" The names of them yt. first imbodied. 

Joshua Moodey. Cn. Elias Stileman. Cn. James Pendleton. 

Mr. Jno. Cutt. Mr. R. Martyn. Mr. Jno. ffletcher. 

Mr. R. Cutt. Sam. Haines. John Tucker. 



Historical Discourse. 33 

" The Church-Covenant that those who first imbodied did on 
yt. Day publiq.'ly & solemnly enter into. — 167 i 

"Wee doo this Day solemnly & publiq.'ly in ye presence of 
God & his people avouch the one only living & true God, ffather, 
Son & Spirit, to bee our God, «S: his Word or revealed Will to be 
our Rule, & doo with ourselves give up our Children to be the 
Lord's. We doo also professedly & heartily subject ourselves to 
Jesus X| as ye Head of his church, & doo covenant & promise 
yt. we will submit ourselves to ye Government of X' in this par- 
ticular church according to ye lawes of his House, that we will 
watch over our Brethren & be watcht ov^er by ym. according to 
Rule, & yt. we will in althings so demean ourselves towards our 
Pastor &: fellow-members as also tow'ds. all others as becomes ye 
Gospell, yt. ye Lord may dwell among us &: blesse us, & we may 
be a peculiar people to his service & glory. And all this we 
promise by ye Help of Jesus Christ, & in his Name, looking up 
to him for his Assistance, as being of ourselves capable of doing 
nothing. 

" Subscribed by ye above mentioned Persons." 

In Mr. Moodcy's account, which I have read, there is a 
blank for the date. At the time of writing, which may have 
been some years after 1 671, he apparently did not remember 
the date, and purposed to insert it at his convenience. The 
time never came ; and we have no original evidence on 
what month and day the church was formed. But there is 
no doubt the month was July; and it is well-nigh certain the 
day was either the eleventh or the twelvth (old style). Add- 
ing ten days to bring the date into conformity with the 
present style, we have either the twenty-first or the twenty- 
second of July as our exact anniversary-day. Ne.xt l^iday 
5 



34 Historical Discourse. 

or Saturday completes two hundred years since the larger 
part of the six hundred inhabitants of Portsmouth were 
gathered, forenoon and afternoon, in the old meeting-house 
at the South Milldam, to hear nine men of their neighbors 
tell their Christian experience, and bind themselves to one 
another and to God in solemn covenant, and to witness the 
ordination over the infant church of its first pastor and 
deacon. We are anticipating, on this occasion, the exact 
anniversary, by one or two days, for reasons of con- 
venience. 

Those nine men who formed this church were almost all 
men of mark in the colony. John and Richard Cutt 
were brothers (like Mr. Moodey, natives of Wales), the sons 
of Richard Cutt, a member of Cromwell's Parliament in 
1654. They were both opulent merchants, Richard being 
the wealthiest man in New Hampshire. John Cutt was, in 
1679, appointed by royal commission, President of the Pro- 
vince. He left by his will one hundred pounds to the town 
of Portsmouth for the purpose of erecting a free school. 

Capt. Elias Stileman came from Salem, and settled 
on Great Island in 1658, or earlier. When this church was 
formed, he brought a letter from the church in Salem, which 
was granted June 25, 167 1. He was, at different times. 
Secretary of the Province, Member of the Council, Com- 
mander of the Fort at Great Island, and Chief Justice of 
the Court of Common Pleas. 

Mr. Richard Martyn was Treasurer of the Province, 
Councillor, Speaker of the Assembly, and Chief Justice of 
the Supreme Court. 

Samuel Haines, first deacon of the church, came to 
New-England in the ship " Angel Gabriel," which sailed 



Historical Discourse. 35 

from Bristol. England, in 1635, and was wrecked at 
Peniaquid (now Bristol), Maine, in the great hurricane of 
Aug. 15, in that year. 

He settled in Greenland, then a part of Portsmouth, in 
1650. His farm was on Great Bay, and is now in the 
possession of Nathaniel Chapman. Deacon Haines was 
one of the selectmen of Portsmouth for many years.^" 

Capt. James Pendleton removed to Stonington, Conn., 
a few years after the formation of this church, and serv^ed 
in the war against King Philip in 1676. 

Mr. John Fletcher was a physician. He was after- 
wards a deacon of the church, and died Sept. 5, 1695. 

John Tucker was a man of considerable property, and 
joined with the great body of the inhabitants in asking 
the Massachusetts authorities to assume the government 
and protection of this province in 1689. 

Mr. Moodey's salary was fixed at this time at one hun- 
dred pounds, besides house-rent and the contributions of 
strangers.'^ Seven years later, the one hundred seems to 
have risen to one hundred and forty pounds.'-' 

In 1674, Mr. Moodey was heavily afflicted by the death of 

'" Andrew NL Haines of Galena, 111., a descendant of the deacon in the 
seventh generation, has thoroughly investigated the history of his ancestor, 
both in this country and in England. 

■-' In 1693, the town agreed to pay Mr. M. twelve pounds yearly, in lieu of 
the contributions of strangers. 

21 Voted, Town-meeting, March 12, 1671-72, "that if any shall smoake to- 
bacco in the meetinghouse at any public meeting shall pay a fine of five shil- 
lings for the use of this town." 

March 12, 1671-72 (same meeting) " Xchemiah Partridge and five or six 
more people have free liberty to build a payre of stayres up to the westward 
beame within the meetinghouse and a pew upon the beame, &c " 



36 Historical Discourse. 

his wife, Martha Moodey. A provision in Mr. Moodey's will, 
at a later date, indicates the place of her burial, — " If I die 
in Portsmouth," the will runs, " my body shall be laid in the 
burying-place there, under the great stone by the side of 
the oak, where I buried my first wife and the deceased 
children I had by her." This was probably in the burial- 
place at the Point of Graves. Three " children of Mr. 
Moodey are known to have lived to adult years, — Martha, 
who married, about 1680, Rev. Jonathan Russell of 
Barnstable, Mass. ; Sarah, who married. May 5, 168 1, 
Rev. John Pike of Dover, N. H. ; and Samuel, who was 
graduated at Harvard College in 1689, preached for a time 
at Newcastle and at the Shoals, was afterwards a military 
commander in the Indian wars in Maine, and was known 
as Major Moodey. All these were no doubt the children 
of Martha Moodey. Mr. Moodey afterwards married 
Widow Ann Jacobs of Ipswich, who survived him. Rev. 
Samuel Moodey of York, who was widely known, and noted 
for his eccentricity, was a nephew of Joshua Moodey. 

When Mr. Moodey came to Portsmouth in 1658, the 
towns within the territory of New Hampshire were united 
with Massachusetts, and governed by her laws, in accordance 
with a compact made some years previously. But, in 1679, 
King Charles II. of England erected New Hampshire into 
a separate government ; and, in 1682, Edward Cranfield 
came out with commission as Lieutenant-Governor and 
Commander-in-chief of the Province. Cranfield had left a 
profitable office in England, apparently in the hope to make 
his fortune in this new country. He was a man of an arbi- 
trary temper, and he soon came in conflict with the sturdy 

■^■^ T. H. Miller speaks also of a daughter Hannah. 



Historical Discojirsc. 37 

spirit of independence which had been growin<jj in tlio col- 
ony throu<;h years of self-government, l^afflcd in many 
of his purposes, and suspecting Mr. Moodey to be one of 
the chief obstacles in his way, he determined to crush him. 
In connection with a trial for some infringement of the 
revenue laws, a member of the church -' was accused of 
perjury. He was called to account by Cranfield, but found 
means to settle the matter with the governor : so that the 
affair was hushed up. This did not satisfy Mr. Moodey. 
The governor commanded him not to pursue the matter 
farther. But Mr. Moodey called the oftender to account 
before the church, and at length led him to an open and 
humble confession of his sin. This enraged the governor.'-^ 

A few months after this (Dec. 10, 1683), Cranfield 
passed an order in council, that, after the first day of Janu- 
ary following, all the ministers in the province should 
admit all persons of suitable years, and not vicious and 
scandalous in their lives, to the sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper, and their children to baptism ; and that, if any 
persons should desire to receive either sacrament accord- 
ing to the liturgy of the Church of England, it should be 
done accordingly, in pursuance of the laws of the realm 
of England." 

The governor also, a few weeks later, sent word to Mr. 
Moodey, that he himself, with four others (three of whom 

'-•' The name is given in Adams's Annals of Portsmoutli as George Jan- 
vrin. That is not the true name. 

2* The result of Mr. Moodey's (liithful discipline was eminently satisfactory. 
The offender became afterwards one of the most active and useful members 
of the church. 

'■*'' See copy of the order in Relknip's New Hampshire, vol. i. appendix. 



3 8 Historical Discourse. 

were Messrs. Mason, Hinckes, and Chamberlain of the 
Council), intended to receive the sacrament at his 
hands the next Lord's Day, and requiring him to be 
prepared to administer it according to the rites of the 
Church of England. Mr. Moodey refused. In a letter 
written at the time, he says, " I told the marshal I durst 
not, could not, should not, do it." The governor had him 
summoned before the Court of Quarter Sessions at Great 
Island, where he was convicted of the crime of adminis- 
tering the sacraments contrary to the rites and ceremonies 
of the Church of England, and was sentenced to imprison- 
ment for six months without bail. The court consisted of 
six justices. Four only could be induced to sign the 
warrant for Mr. Moodey's imprisonment. The two who 
refused were soon dismissed by Cranfield from all public 
offices. Mr. Moodey, at a later period, finds evidence of a 
providential retribution following his unjust judges. He 
says of the four who condemned him : " Not long after, H. 
Green repented, and made his acknowledgement to the 
pastor, who frankly forgave him. Roby was excommuni- 
cated out of Hampton Church for a common drunkard, and 
died excommunicate, and was by his friends thrown into an 
hole near his house, for fear of an arrest of his carcass. 
Barefoot fell into a languishing distemper, whereof he died. 
Coffin was taken by the Indians, and his house and mills 
burnt, himself not slain but dismist. The Lord grant him 
repentance, though no signs of it have appeared. (Psal. 9, 
16)." Mr. Moodey was committed to the sherift", and 
confined in the house of Capt. Stileman at Great Island. 
A letter from Wm. Vaughan, Esq., who was also unjustly 
imprisoned at this time, though on a different pretext, and 



Historical Discourse. 39 

who was confined with Mr. Moodey, gives a picture of the 
anxious condition of the church and community under 
Cranfield's reckless measures. " But, above all," he says, 
" our minister lies in prison, and a famine of the Word of 
God is coming upon us. No public worship, no preaching 
of the word : what ignorance, profaneness, and misery must 
ensue ! " And under a later date, " The sabbath is come, 
but no preaching at the Bank, nor any allowed to come to 
us. Motions have been made that Mr. Moodey may go up 
and preach on the Lord's day, tho. he come down to the 
prison at night ; or that neighbor ministers might be per- 
mitted to come and preach ; or that the people might come 
down to the prison and hear, as many as could. But 
nothing will do." " If they go on thus we are utterly 
ruined. I question whether any age can parallel such 
actions." " I am credibly informed, and you may believe it, 
that the Governor did in the open council yesterday, say 
and swear dreadfully that he would put the province into 
the greatest confusion and distraction he could possibly, 
and then go away and leave them so ; and then the devil 
take them all. He also then said that Mr. Mason said he 
would drive them into a second rebellion, but himself 
would do it before, and I wonder he has not ; such actings 
are the ready way, but God hath kept us hitherto, and I hope 
will do so still." ^^ There are also three letters preserved 
which were written by Mr. Moodey during his confine- 
ment. They breathe a resolute but Christian spirit. One 
dated " 12, 12, 1683," i.e., Feb. 12, 1684, is addres.sed to 
Thomas Hinckley, Governor of New Plymouth, in reply to 
one Mr. Moodey had received from him before his imprison- 

'>' N. II. Hist. Coll., viii. iSj, 11". 



40 Historical Discourse. 

ment. After recounting the facts that have ah-eady been 
mentioned, he says, " I told the court that I should go to 
prison with much more peace than they sent me thither ; 
and particularly applied myself to Roby a church-member, 
and told him that I had done nothing but what he was by 
solemn covenant engaged to maintain, and wished him to 
provide against the day when these things should be over- 
hauled. . . . But, blessed be God for Jesus Christ, I 
am quiet and at peace. Tho. I have many things that are 
matter of repentance and shame to me, yet in this matter 
I am abundantly satisfied in my lot, and hope shall be a 
gainer, and that the cause of Christ will gain by my suffer- 
ings. Only, methinks, I find it a hard matter to sufter in a 
right manner. Something of stoutness of spirit, some other 
sinister ends, are apt to creep in, and spoil suffering work. 
The Lord grant that I may have grace so to carry it as not 
to lose aught that I have done, and do now suffer ! I beg 
your hearty prayers for me, that with integrity and sinceri- 
ty I may cheerfully and patiently bear my cross till the 
Lord shall give me a discharge." '■^^ 

In another letter, addressed to Rev. Samuel Phillips of 
Rowley, and dated, " From the prison, 27th. ist. mo. 1684," 
i.e., March 27, 1684, he urges Mr. Phillips to come to Ports- 
mouth, and preach to the people for one or two sabbaths at 
least. Cranfield being absent in New York, Mr. Moodey 
has obtained from Mr. Mason, who presides in the gover- 
nor's absence, the permission to make such an arrangement. 
" Oh, consider," he writes, " that my poor flock have fasted 
about forty days, and must now be an hungered ! Have 
pity upon them, have pity upon them, O thou, my friend ! 

2' Hinckley PaiK-rs, IV. Mass. II. C, v. u6-l2i. 



Historical Discourse. 41 

And when you have taken your turn, we shall hope for 
some other. You will thereby not only visit me in prison, 
but feed a great multitude of the hungry and thirsty little 
ones of Christ, which will be accounted for at that day. . . . 
Pray come early enough in the week to give notice to the 
people. I do also, in behalf of my dear and tender wife, 
thank you for yours to her. Now, pray for me, that I may 
have an humble heart, and that my whole soul, body, and 
spirit may be sanctified, and kept blameless to that day ! " "^ 
Mr. Phillips came and preached for Mr. Moodey two sab- 
baths, the 13th and 20th of April. 

After lying in prison thirteen weeks, in May, 1684, Mr. 
Moodey was released, with an injunction to preach no more 
within the province on penalty of further imprisonment. 
He accepted an invitation to preach for the First Church in 
Boston, as temporary colleague with their pastor, Rev. John 
Allen, and remained there eight years. A few months 
after his removal to Boston, Rev. John Rogers, President 
of Harvard College, died, and Mr. Moodey was elected his 
successor, but declined the position. 

In the latter part of Mr. Moodey's ministry at Boston, 
the Witchcraft delusion was raging at Salem. The part 
which Mr. Moodey took with reference to it is eminently 
honorable to his judgment and to his Christian intrepidity. 
Philip English and his wife were among the persons accused 
at Salem, but were confined at the jail in Boston, on ac- 
count of the crowded condition of the Salem prison. " In 
Boston, upon giving bail, they had the liberty of the town, 

^ Biographical Sketches of the Moody Family, 29, 30. See also a letter 
from Mr. Moodey i» prison to Rev. Iiiciease Mather, in Mather Papers, 

IV. Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. viii. 

6 



42 Historical Discourse. 

only lodging in prison. On the day before they were to 
return to Salem for trial, Mr. Moodey waited upon them in 
the prison, and invited them to the public worship. On 
the occasion he chose for the text, the words, ' If they per- 
secute you in one city, flee into another.' In the discourse, 
with a manly freedom, he justified every attempt to escape 
Irom the forms of justice, when justice was violated in 
them." After service, he visited the prisoners in the jail, 
and frankly told them that they ought by all means to flee. 
After much persuasion, he induced them to yield to his 
plans. With the concurrence of the governor, he had pro- 
vided for their escape from the prison at midnight, and 
their conveyance out of the colony. They went to New 
York with recommendations to Gov. Fletcher, and remained 
there till the next year. " In all this business, Mr. Moodey 
openly justified Mr. English, and in defiance of all the pre- 
judices which prevailed, expressed his abhorrence of the 
measures which had obliged a useful citizen to flee from 
the executioners. Mr. Moodey was commended by all dis- 
cerning men ; but he felt the angry resentment of the 
deluded multitude of his own times, among whom some of 
high rank were included." "^" 

Mr. Moodey writes, in the records of this church, that, 
during his residence in Boston, " The church were often 
visited by the pastor, and kept up theyr private meetings, and 
so held together ; tho.some removed, and others were taken 
away by death." Rev. Gilbert Laurie came from Boston, 

-^ From an account by Mr. Bentley of Salem, drawn up early in the pres- 
ent century from conununications by Madam Susanna Harthornc, great-grand- 
daughter of Mr. English. Eliot's Biograph. Diet., p. 328. Mr. English tied 
from Boston about the ist of June, 1692. 



Historical Discourse. 43 

and preached here six months or more, commencing Nov. 
I, 16S6. Rev. John Cotton, who was afterwards settled 
at Hampton, a grandson of the distinguished John Cot- 
ton of Boston, preached here three mf)nths or more in the 
winter or spring of 1692. 

It is pleasant to read in letters of Mr. Moodey, during his 
ministry in Boston, indications of his tender interest in his 
own church and people. In October, 1688, he writes to 
Rev. Increase Mather, who was then in London, " If you 
can, in all your opportunities of waiting on his Maj'-'', find 
a season to thrust in a happy word for poor N. Hampshire, 
who are under lamentable circumstances. Mason is dead, 
but his sons survive and possibly may be worse than hee. 
You know how the poor people have been unreasonably 
harassed, and to raise one family on the ruins of half a 
dozen considerable Townes looks hard. Tis my affection 
to my people that has drawn this hint fro. mec. I leave it 
to your consideration, and pray for God's presence to bee 
with you." And three months later (Jan. 8, 1689), he 
adds a postscript to a letter, to say, '* If something could 
be done for the poor Province of N. Hampshire and Mein, 
it would be a good work." '"' 

Gov. Cranfield had been obliged to leave New Hamp- 
shire, almost as a fugitive, in May, 1685, the year after he 
had driven Mr. Moodey to Boston. It is not easy to un- 
derstand why Mr. Moodey did not then return to Ports- 
mouth. The c[uestion was many times discussed between 
him and the people here. He writes to Mr. Mather in Jul)-, 
1688, " I need exceedingly your advice about going to 
Portsmouth, which is vehemently urged by my church and 

" IV. M.iss. Hist. Cull., viii. 357, (T. 



44 Historical Discourse. 

people, and the next week we are to take counsell about it. 
The church is dear to mee, and I could bee glad to be with 
them, but the circumstances of my removing hence and 
being there are tremendous to mee. Pray for mee daily." 

The difficulties, whatever they may have been, were at 
length surmounted; and, in June or July, 1692,^^ Mr. 
Moodey left the church in Boston, and returned and la- 
bored here five years, until his death. In 1697, he went to 
Boston for medical advice, and died there on Sunday, July 
4, 1697, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. 

His body was laid in the tomb of the worshipful John 
Hull, in the Granary Burying-ground. Rev. Dr. Cotton 
Mather preached a sermon upon his decease, from these 
words, — " Looking steadfastly on him, they saw his face, as 
it had been the face of an angel." He says, " The church 
of Portsmouth (a part of the country that very much owed 
its life unto him) crys out of a deadly wound in his death. 
His labors in the gospel were frequent and fervent. And 
unto his cares to edifie his flock by sermons, he added 
more than ordinary cares to do it by visits ; no man per- 
haps being a kinder visitant. He was not only ready to do 
good, but also to suffer for doing it. . . . When the last 
summons of death came to be served upon him, he had 
neither time nor strength to speak very much. Unto a 
minister who visited him the day before his expiration, he 
signified that he was ' rejoicing in the hope of the glory of 

•'1 In 1692, the number of families in this parish was two hundred and 
thirty-one, viz., at Strawberry Bank, one hundred and twenty ; at Greenland, 
sixty-eight ; at Great Island, forty-three. (Dr. Stiles in North Church Rec- 
ords.) In this enumeration. Strawberry Bank probably included a part of 
Newington ; and Greenland included ail south of Sagamore Creek. 



Historical Disconi'sc. 45 

God ; ' that he was ' longing to go to the precious Christ, 
whom he had chose and served ; that the spirit of Christ 
had comfortably taken away from him the fear of death.' " 

One hundred and sixty persons united with this church 
during Mr. Moodey's ministry. The record of those whom 
he baptized is given only for the last four and a quarter 
years of his life. The number during that time was one 
hundred and ten. The last baptism by Mr. Moodey, as re- 
corded in the church-book, is that of " William Peperill," 
under date of May 9, 1697. This child was afterwards the 
distinguished merchant of Kittery, who was created baro- 
net in consequence of his success in leading the expedition 
of 1745 against Louisburg. His father was one of the 
first settlers at the Lsle of Shoals (about 1676). It is .said 
that he, with a Mr. Gibbons, carried on fisheries there for a 
few years, when they "found it too limited for their views, 
and concluded to remove to some part of the main. To 
determine them whither they should go, they each set up a 
stick, and let it fall as Providence should direct." Mr. Pep- 
perell's fell towards the north-west, and he took that direc- 
tion, and settled at Kittery Point : Mr. Gibbons's stick fell 
toward the north-east ; and he accordingly, so runs the tra- 
dition, found a home near the Penobscot River.*' Mr. Pcp- 
perell, the father, joined this church, Nov. 5, 1696. 

Nearly two years after Mr. Moodey's death. May 3, 1699, 
Nathaniel Roceks was ordained second pastor of this 
church : ■'•' "the good Mr. Rogers," he is called in some of 

*- I. Mass. Hist. Coll., vii. 242. 

'^ The church numbered seventy-nine members at the time of Mr. Rogers's 
ordination, — twenty males, fifty-nine females. 

Mr. Rogers preached at Salem villaj^c from February to September, 1697, 
and received a call to seUlc there, but declined. — lull's A inuils of Siilcm, \2%. 



46 Historical Discourse. 

the records of that day. He was the youngest son of Rev. 
John Rogers, President of Harvard College, was born at 
Ipswich, Feb. 22, 1669-70, and was graduated at Harvard, 
in 1687. 

His wife was Sarah Purkiss, a niece of Rev. Ebenezer 
Pemberton of Boston. Mrs. Rogers's mother, after the 
death of her second husband, whose name was Elatson, 
came to live with Mrs. Rogers. In October, 1704, the an- 
cient parsonage took fire in the night, and was burned to 
the ground. Mrs. Elatson was so much injured that she 
survived only a few weeks. An infant child of Mr. Ro- 
gers's, and a negro woman, perished in the flames. This 
house was no doubt the old first chapel, which had been 
refitted for a parsonage when the meeting-house at the 
South Milldam was built. The next year, the town voted 
Mr. Rogers one hundred and fifty pounds to assist in build- 
ing a house upon his own land. 

In 1707 (April 21), "at a church meeting legally con- 
vened, it was voted, that [any] person having a competent 
knowledge and making a serious pro. of ye Xian Religion, 
and being of a conversation void of scandal, upon yr own- 
ing ye covenant and subjecting themselves to ye govern- 
ment of Xin this church, shall be admitted to baptism, and 
have a like priviledge for yr children." 

This " Half-way Covenant," as it was termed, was intro- 
duced in a large part of the Congregational churches of 
New England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
but proved a great injury to their spirituality and success. 
Its object was, to draw into a certain partial relation to the 
Church, men of upright lives who made no claim to religious 
character, in the hope that they might, by this means, be 



Hislorical Discourse. 47 

led to repentance and faith. Its result was, to veil tlie ne- 
cessity of a change of heart, and to lead men to satisfy 
themselves in putting a formal and reserved profession of 
religion in the place of one that should be hearty and entire. 
The custom prevailed in this church down to the end of 
Dr. Buckminster's ministry, but was not continued by Dr. 
Putnam or his successors. 

" At a Generall Town Meeting held at Portsmo. this 
24th day of September, 171 1, looted that a new meeting- 
house be built in the Town, looted \\\-a.\. the new meeting- 
house be built on the corner of the minister's ffeild, on ye 
place formerly appointed by ye comittee, and that it be ye 
stated meetinghouse of ye Town. Voters for the meeting- 
house are sixty-five, against are fourty-five."''^ A committee 
was chosen at the same meeting " to carry on ye affaire of 
building sd House ;" and the selectmen were empowered to 
raise money by way of a town-rate for the said house. 
" The corner of the minister's ffield," in this vote, refers to 
the locality on which this church now stands ; and the meet- 
ing-house built here, in accordance with the vote, was the 
one taken down in 1854, after standing more than one hun- 
dred and forty years. 

The opposition to building the meeting-house in 171 i 
arose from local feeling ; the people in the vicinity of 
Pickering's Dam being unwilling to have the house placed 
so far north. When the house was completed, the church 
voted, under date of Jan. 7, 17 14,''' "That Nathaniel 

•''* Town Kei.uids, ii. 25. 

•^ In the Records, "Jan. 7, 1713 ;" but, of course, it sliould be written now, 
" 1 7 14." Hy omitting to make this correction, Alden in his Account of tlie 
Religious Societies in Portsmouth, and all later writers, have failed to show 
the true >uc(.ession of facts in the controversy. 



48 Historical Discourse. 

Rogers, minister of this church, should come to the new 
meeting-house erected at ye Bank, on ye next Sabbath* 
seven night, and preach there, and continue preaching there 
as formerly at ye old Meeting House, and perform all other 
offices which appertain to his function." 

The people at the South End claimed that the vote for 
locating the house in this place was obtained unfairly ; and 
they were not willing to submit to it. After Mr. Rogers 
began to preach in the new house, they obtained Rev. John 
Emerson to preach in the old house. The controversy ran so 
high, that it was referred to the legislature ; and the follow- 
ing vote was passed by the Council and General Assembly 
of the Province of New Hampshire, at Portsmouth, May 
1 1, 1714 : " Upon the hearing of all parties referring to the 
meeting houses of this Town, and having seen the grants, 
agreements and votes of the said Town of Portsmouth, 
referring to the settlements of the Rev. Mr. Rogers, the 
present minister of the said Town or Parish, — voted that 
the said Mr. Rogers be established the minister of the said 
Town, and be confirmed in the possession of the Gleeb 
land or Parsonage Lands according to the agreement with 
the Town." Provision is also made in the same act for the 
support, by the town, of the minister at " the other Meet- 
ing House at the Mill Damm." ^^ 

But this did not bring peace ; for we find, that, two 
months later, there are two sets of town-officers in Ports- 
mouth, — one elected by a town-meeting at the old meeting- 
house, the other chosen at the new ; and the interposition 
of the legislature is again requested, with the following 
result : — 

3" Prov. Papers of N. II., iii. 559. 



Historical Discourse. 49 

House of Representatives of New Hampshire, 28 July, 

1 7 14. "Voted a concurrence witli the order of the Gov- 
ernor and Council, and considering the Regularity of the 
Town Meeting at the New Meeting House the seventh 
of June, confirm the Town clerk and all other officers then 
chosen, and the votes then passed about the new Meeting 

House." '^ 

Rev. Mr. Emerson was settled over the church and 
society worshipping in the old meeting-house, in March, 

1 71 5. There was not full harmony between the two socie- 
ties until twenty or thirty years later, when Mr. Fitch and 
Mr. Shurtleff began the occasional interchange of pulpit 
services, which was continued by their successors down to 

the year 18 19. 

Aug. 18, 1 7 19, "At a church meeting Lawfully warned, 
it was unanimously voted that we give our consent to ye 
reading of ye holy Scripture in the publick worship ; yt is 
a chapter in ye forenoon and a chapter in ye Afternoon 

service." 

Mr. Rogers died on the 3d of October, 1723, in the fifty- 
fourth year of his age, and was interred in the ancient 
burial-ground called the Point of Graves. An old record 
says of him, that he was a minister of the Geneva School, 
that he had a very agreeable manner of preaching, and was 
very elegant in person and deportment. Rev. Dr. Stiles 
says of him, in our church records : " He was a most excel- 
lent minister ; and his ministry, as well as that of that holy 
man of God, his predecessor, was eminently owned and 

87 Prov. Papers of N. H.. iii. 573- See also Prov. Papers, ii. 68S, and 
iii. 569, 571. 643. 684, 715. 729- 
7 



5© Historical Discourse. 

blessed of the great Head of the Church." Mr. Rogers 
had nine children, some of whom became eminent. 

The third pastor of this church was Rev. Jabez Fitch, 
who was installed here in the spring or summer of 1725.'® 
He was one of the fourteen children of Rev. James Fitch 
of Norwich, Conn., and was born in April, 1672. He was 
graduated at Harvard College in 1694, and was chosen a 
Fellow of the Corporation and a Tutor of the College. 
He was ordained at Ipswich, as colleague with Rev. John 
Rogers, in 1703, and resigned on account of inadequate 
support in 1723. His wife was Elizabeth Appleton, daugh- 
ter of Col. John Appleton of Ipswich, and niece of Rev. 
Nathaniel Rogers, second pastor of this church.^^ 

During his mmistry here, in 1740 and the following 
years, the great revival with which the names of Whitefield, 
Pres. Edwards, and the Tennents, are connected, extended 
through New England. There was unusual religious 
interest in Portsmouth, in which both the churches shared. 
Sixty-three members were added to the South Church in 
the year 1742. By the loss of our records for the period 
of Mr. Fitch's ministry, it is impossible to speak as defi- 
nitely of the results in our own church. Mr. Whitefield 
preached here in one or both the churches in October, 
1740, in November, 1744, and in February, 1745. A very 
interesting letter from Rev. Mr. Shurtleff, pastor of the 
South Church, is preserved in Prince's " Christian History " 
for January and February, 1 743-44. The letter is dated at 
Portsmouth, June i, 1743. "You are doubtless in some 

^^ See earliest Parish Account Book, page 103. 

®^ Steps were taken to form an Episcopal church in Portsmouth in 1732; 
and, in 1736, Rev. Arthur Brown Ijecame rector. 



Historical Discourse. 51 

Measure acquainted with the Character which the People 
of this Town have heretofore generally sustained. They 
have, I think, been remarked by Strangers for their Polite- 
ness in Dress and Behaviour ; have been thought to go 
beyond most others in equal Circumstances, if not to ex- 
ceed themselves, in their sumptuous and elegant Living and 
Things of the like Nature ; and while they have been justly 
in Repute for their generous and hospitable Disposition, and 
for many social virtues. Diversions of various Kinds have 
been much in Fashion, and the vices that have been usual 
in seaport and trading places have been common and 
prevalent among us. We have, I trust, never been without 
a number of sincere and serious Christians ; but even 
these wise Virgins have slumbered and slept ; and, as to 
the generality of Professors, they have seemed for a great 
while to content themselves with an empty form, and there 
has been but little of the life and power of Religion to be 
seen. . . . Mr. Whitefield's coming among us and also 
Mr. Tennent's was, I am perswaded, blessed of God." He 
goes on to speak of the first special exhibition of religious 
feeling, which was in connection with a Fast observed in 
this town on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 1741, some of the 
ministers from neighboring towns coming to assist in the 
services. The interest was so great that " the People did 
not care to disperse ; insomuch that there was another 
sermon in the evening ; and a great Number of them 
stayed till it was late in the Place of public Worship. The 
next day a Sermon was again preached in public and had 
an unusual Efficacy upon the Hearers. The Day after, we 
had two or three Exercises, and the Congregation, great 
Part of it, continued together till late at Night. 



52 Historical Discourse. 

" This Friday was the most remarkable Day that was ever 
known among us. The whole Congregation seemed deeply 
affected ; and there was such a general outcry, in some 
from a distressing Sight of their Sins, and in others from 
a joyful sense of the Love of Christ, that could not but put 
a great many in Mind of the appearing of the Son of Man, 
and of the different Exclamations that shall be heard from 
the Inhabitants of the World, when they shall see Him 
coming in the Clouds of Heaven, in Power and great 
Glory." 

Speaking of the results of the revival, he says, " As to 
the place in general, that there is an Alteration in it for the 
better, must I think needs be owned by every unprejudiced 
Observer. There is not that profane Cursing and Swear- 
ing which has formerly been usual. The Sabbath is more 
strictly observed. Family Worship, where it was neglected 
in a variety of Instances is now set up. . Some that were 
manifestly of a narrow, selfish, and worldly Spirit, and 
seemed unwilling to part with any thing of what they 
possessed to any good and charitable Use whatsoever, 
appear now to have their Hearts much enlarged. Many 
that have dealt dishonestly, have not only acknowledged 
the Wrongs they have done, but made Restitution for them. 
Musick and Dancing seems to be wholly laid aside. Where 
you might formerly have heard jovial, and it may be profane 
and obscene songs, you may now hear Psalms and Hymns 
of Praise sung to God, and to our Lord Jesus Christ." 
This special interest continued, Mr. ShurtlefT says, through 
the winter of 1741-42, and was renewed in the following 
winter. At the time he writes, "numbers meet together 
to supplicate the Throne of Grace upon the Evening of 



Historical Discourse. 53 

every day in the Week but Saturday, when there is no 
publick Lecture." ^^ In a later note, Mr. Shurtleff says, 
that, " among the very many that have been awakened and 
deeply convinced, there is a goodly Number that are giving 
all the evidence that can be expected of a real and saving 
Change." ^' 

Mr. Fitch was advancing in years, and his health was not 
good. On the 6th of November, 1745, the parish voted, 
" that Mr. Samuel Langdon, the Schoolmaster, be invited 
to settle among us as an assistant with the Rev. Mr. Jabez 
Fitch in the work of the Ministry, and that he shall have 
and hereby has the consent of the Parish, to take the care 
and charge of the Grammar School in this Town, in Ease 
of the Parish with respect to the Salary to be paid him, so 
long as Mr. Fitch shall be able to perform his Ministrations 
as usual." Mr. Langdon was to " preach once every other 
Sabbath, and as much oftener " as would consist with his 
" care of said school, [his] ability and agreement with Mr. 
Fitch." But this arrangement was not to continue long. 
A year later, on the 22d of November, 1746, Mr. Fitch 
died of a nervous fever in the seventy-fifth year of his 
age, and was buried, like his predecessor, at the Point of 
Graves. It is recorded of him, that "his mind was strong 
and richly stored with learning. His heart was swayed by 
benevolent affections, and eminently sanctified by the Spirit 
of Grace."*- He had a taste for historical researches, 
and made a collection of facts relative to New Hampshire, 
of which Dr. Belknap availed himself in writing his history 
of the State. 

*o Christian History, 1743, p. 383, ff. *' Ibid., p. 173. 

*''■ Felt's Ipswich, 237. 



54 Historical Discourse. 

Mr. Samuel Langdon was ordained fourth pastor of this 
church on the 4th of February, 1 747. The church consisted 
at that time of one hundred and sixty-four members, — forty- 
eight males, one hundred and sixteen females. Mr. Lang- 
don was born in Boston in the year 1722, was graduated at 
Harvard College, 1740, and soon removed to Portsmouth to 
teach the grammar-school. In 1745 he went, as chaplain 
to the regiment from New Hampshire, on the expedition 
which Sir William Pepperell led to the capture of Louis- 
burg. It was soon after his return from that expedition 
that he became assistant to Mr. Fitch. 

Rev. Dr. Clark, one of his successors here, in a sketch 
of Dr. Langdon in Sprague's " Annals of the American 
Pulpit," says, " As a preacher and pastor he was much 
respected and beloved. His sermons were prepared with 
great care, and evinced no small ability. In the Piscataqua 
Association, consisting of twenty-five highly respectable, 
and some of them decidedly able men, he was regarded as 
standing quite at the head." In the year 175 1, there was 
a powerful revival of religion in this church and parish ; 
and forty-five were added to the church. 

The Independent Congregational Society was formed in 
1757 ; and in 1761 Rev. Samuel Drown became its pastor. 
This society originated in a desire on the part of some 
members of the North and South churches for more rigid 
terms of church-membership and more stringent disci- 
pline. They purchased a meeting-house at Durham, and 
removed it to the site now occupied by the chapel of the 
South Church, on Court Street. After Mr. Drown, Rev. 
Joseph Walton was pastor. Both these men were emi- 
nently earnest, devoted ministers. Neither of them had 



Historical Discourse. 55 

received special education for the ministry. The society 
was not large or wealthy ; and, at a later day, Gov. Langdon 
of the North Church paid a considerable part of Mr. 
Walton's small salary. Soon after Mr. Walton's death, in 
1822, the society was merged in the Calvinistic Baptist 
Society. In 1761, the meeting-house of the North Parish 
was enlarged by carrying the west side back twelve feet. 

Jan. 25, 1762, the parish passed the following vote: 
" Whereas it has long been complained of, as a great 
Grievance and Indecency as well as an Imposition on this 
Parish that the House appropriated for their public 
Worship of God which every one attending that Service 
there ought to look upon with a kind of Reverential Awe 
and Esteem on the Account of that Appropriation and 
Use, should yet upon all occasions be made the Scene of 
transacting the public Business of the Town, and the Place 
for holding all the Town Meetings where frequently 
warm Debates and Contentions arise and such Passions 
fomented as are very unsuitable to such a Place, and 
which the sanctity and reverence due to holy Time may 
not always be sufficient reasonably to allay, besides the 
Damage done to the Pews, Seats, and other Parts of the 
House. Therefore, voted, that hereafter no public Town 
Meeting foV transacting the civil Affairs and Business of 
the Town be permitted to be kept and held in the Meeting 
House, in this Parish in which the Parishioners usually 
meet for the public Worship of Almighty God for the 
Reasons above hinted." The next town-meeting was, 
however, appointed in the North Meeting-House. The 
door was found locked. A moderator was elected upon the 
doorsteps ; and then, by vote, the door was broken open. 



56 Historical Discourse. 

and the business was transacted in the meeting-house as 
usual. But this was probably the last time that the town- 
meeting was appointed or held here. 

About the year 1764, Robert Sandeman came to this 
country, and preached his peculiar tenets ; and a society 
called by his name was formed in Portsmouth, which 
existed for several years. They erected a small house of 
worship on Pleasant Street, nearly where the house of 
Mark H. Wentworth now stands. 

Mr. Whitefield was here in 1770, immediately before his 
death, and preached one of his last sermons on this spot. 
On Sunday, Sept. 24, and Monday 25, he preached in Dr. 
Haven's meeting-house. Tuesday forenoon he preached in 
" the great meeting-house," i.e., the North, from the text, 
" This man receiveth sinners." Wednesday he preached at 
Kittery, Thursday at York, Friday again at Portsmouth 
for the last time, Saturday at Exeter ; and Sunday morning 
he died at Newburyport. 

The year 1771 completed one hundred years from the 
formation of this church ; but I can find no evidence 
in church, parish, or town records, or in the files of the 
New Hampshire Gazette for that year, that any notice was 
taken of the anniversary. 

An interesting fact in the history of Portsmouth at this 
time may find its place here, on account of the participa- 
tion in it of Gov. John Langdon, a prominent member of 
the North Church. The king had passed an order in coun- 
cil, forbidding the farther exportation of gunpowder to these 
colonies. It was well known to the patriots of Portsmouth 
and the vicinity, that a large quantity of gunpowder was 



Historical Discourse. 57 

stored at Fort William and Mary, now Fort Constitution, 
The report of the king's order reached New England in 
December, 1774. A plan was at once formed at Ports- 
mouth to seize the gunpowder in the fort. On a moonlight 
evening a company, led by Capt. Thomas Pickering and 
Major John Langdon, went in a gondola at midnight to the 
vicinity of the fort, waded ashore, and, surprising the small 
garrison, took possession of one hundred barrels of powder, 
which they carried up the river to Durham. There the 
powder was concealed in the cellar of the old Congrega- 
tional meeting-house. A few weeks later the most of it 
was taken to Cambridge, and is said to have been used by 
the patriots at the battle of Bunker Hill. This gallant and 
successful exploit, which preceded by several months the 
fight at Lexington, may claim to be one of the first acts of 
the American Revolution. 

In 1774, Dr. Langdon was elected President of Harvard 
College, and dismissed from his pastoral relation here on 
the 9th of October, much to the regret of the church and 
parish. 

The oppression of Great Britain was now preparing the 
minds of the American colonists for the coming struggle. 
Dr. Langdon was one of the foremost in maintaining the 
rights of the people. In 1775, he preached the annual 
Election Sermon before the Provincial Congress of Massa- 
chusetts. Gen. Gage had control of Boston, and the 
Congress was in session in Watertown. The sermon was 
preached on the 31st of May, six weeks after the first blood 
of the war was shed at Lexington. It breathes the most 
earnest patriotic spirit.^^ I?y special vote, a copy of it was 

*•'' See the sermon in Thornton's Pulpit of the Americ.-in Revolution. 



58 Historical Discourse. 

sent to each minister in the colony and to each member of 
the Congress. In 1780, Dr. Langclon resigned the presi- 
dency of the college, and the following year was installed 
pastor of the church in Hampton Falls. " In 1788, he was 
chosen a delegate to the State Convention, where he mani- 
fested great ability as a debater, and did much towards 
removing the prejudices that then existed against the Fed- 
eral Constitution." He died Nov. 29, 1797, having nearly 
completed the seventy-fifth year of his age, and was buried 
at Hampton Falls. 

Dr. Langdon married Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Rich- 
ard Brown of Reading, Mass. They had nine children, 
four of whom died in infancy. Mrs. John K. Pickering of 
this city is his grand-daughter, and now resides in the house 
which Dr. Langdon built previous to 1762. Dr. A. P. Pea- 
body says, in a private letter, " I knew, in the early part 
of my ministry, several [persons at Hampton Falls] who 
remembered Dr. Langdon. He left his library for the use 
of his successors in the ministry there. I was quite familiar 
with it. It indicated a man curious in the more recondite 
provinces of theological literature, and contained a good 
many books that I have never seen elsewhere." Dr. Lang- 
don received his degree from the University of Aberdeen 
in 1762. He was the first doctor of divinity in New 
Hampshire. 

In 1775, the population of Portsmouth was 4.590. 

In 1776, Rev. David McClure was invited to become 
pastor of this church ; but he declined, and was afterwards 
settled at East Windsor, Conn. 

The next minister. Rev. Ezra Stiles, D.D., makes 
tlie following record in the books of the church : — 



Historical Discourse. 59 

" After about twenty years' ministry in the Second Con- 
gregational Church in Newport, R.I., it pleased God, that, 
by the calamities and dangers of a most unnatural civil 
war, my church and congregation and myself should be 
broken up, dispersed, and scattered abroad. The provi- 
dence of God opened a door for my labors in the evangeli- 
cal ministry and in the pastoral office, in the First Church 
in Portsmouth. I came here, and preached my first sermon 
April 6. 1777. I removed, and settled here with my family 
May 29, 1777. At my coming here, I found the church to 
consist of about eighty communicants, while the congrega- 
tion is said to be two hundred and fifty families." 

Under date of March 18, 1778, he says, "The church and 
congregation of the First Parish in Portsmouth having, by 
their vote of 27th January last, given me their unanimous 
call to settle with them in the work of the ministryj[ re- 
turned them my most respectful thanks for the honor and 
aftectionate importunity ^hown me upon this occasion ; 
and this day gave my final answer, that, upon serious 
deliberation and extensive advice, I had concluded and 
determined it to be my duty to accept the Presidency of 
Yale College, to which I had been elected the loth of 
September last." His labors here terminated June 7, 1778. 
Mr. Payne Wingate preached for this parish twenty-nine 
sabbaths, probably in the year 1 778. 

Rev. Joseph Buckminster was ordained fifth pastor of 
the church, Jan. 27, 1779- He was the son of Rev. 
Joseph Buckminster of Rutland, Mass., and was born Oct. 
3, 175 1. His mother was a cousin of Jonathan Ed- 
wards. He was graduated at Yale College in 1770, was 
elected in the Berkeley foundation as one of the three best 



6o Historical Discourse. 

scholars of his class, and was afterwards tutor in the 
college for four years. Very persistent endeavors were 
made to induce him to become the pastor of the Second 
Church in Hartford ; but he declined, and came to Ports- 
mouth. He was twenty-eight years of age. He had a 
strong and musical voice, of such quality " that its lowest 
tones could be distinctly heard in the remotest corner of 
the vast, old, double-galleried meeting-house. He could 
take either part in the singing ; and the pure, bell-like 
tones of his voice could always be distinguished in the full 
choir. His appearance in the pulpit was dignified and 
graceful. His whole manner in preaching had a peculiar 
pathos, that illumined his countenance, and trembled in 
the earnestness of his voice." It is not strange that he 
was almost idohzed by his people. Rev. Dr. Whiting, in 
the sermon preached at the dedication of this house of 
worship, mentions the tradition in Dr. Buckminster's native 
town, " that, when he went year by year to the home of his 
youth, the meeting-house of his father on the highlands of 
Worcester County would be crowded, and all the windows 
filled by eager groups standing outside to hear his marvel- 
lous eloquence." " 

Two years after Dr. Buckminster's ordination, he married 
Sarah Stevens, only child of Rev. Dr. Stevens of Kittery 
Point. She was the mother of Joseph Stevens Buckmin- 
ster and of two daughters. Her death, after eight years 
at Portsmouth, brought upon Dr. Buckminster a severe 
attack of the mental depression to which he, like many 

** The Universalist Society in Portsmouth was formed about the year 
1780. Their first meeting-house was built on Vaughan Street in 1784: the 
present church was erected in 1808. 



Historical Discourse. 6i 

riien of such extreme sensibility, was always subject. He 
ceased to preach tor a time, and even discontinued the 
family devotions.^^ 

After three years, in 1793, he married Mary Lyman, the 
daughter of Rev. Isaac Lyman of York, Me., who became 
the mother of eight children. 

It required much care and economy to make the salary 
meet the expenses of so large a family. But it was Dr. 
Buckminster's rule never to incur a debt. His salary had 
been adjusted, at his suggestion, in a peculiar way, so that it 
might not vary with the changing value o'f money in those 
days. He was to receive " Such a sum of money annually 
as will be sufficient to purchase three hundred bushels of 
Indian corn, and four thousand eight hundred pounds 
weight of fresh beef at the current market-price, as it may 
be settled in the month of October annually." Corn was 
then four shillings per bushel, and beef three pence per pound. 
If the prices should be less in any year, he was still to re- 
ceive one hundred and twenty pounds. He was also to 
have the use of a house and garden, the keeping of a horse, 
twenty-five cords of wood annually, and " the free contribu- 
tion." 

The church numbered, in the year 1802, ninety-two mem- 
bers, — sixteen males, seventy-six females. 

A Baptist society was formed in Portsmouth in Septem- 
ber, 1802, by the instrumentality of Rev. Elias Smith ; and 
a church was gathered in March, 1803, The present 

*^ Dr. Ruckminster probably lived at first in Dr. Langdon's house. The 
parish paid the rent of that house for several years, and no doubt for Dr. B.'s 
use. In 1792, the parish built a parsonage ne.xt north of Dr. Langdon's 
house. It is the same house now occupied by the pastor, though no longer the 
property of the parish. 



62 Historical Discourse. 

Christian church and society worshipping on Court Street 
now represent that society. 

Mrs. Mary Buckminster died in the year 1805, and 
plunged Dr. Buckminster again into the deepest grief. 
The whole of the night and day following her decease, he 
walked to and fro in his study, so overcome with his sor- 
row that even his children feared to approach him. 

His domestic affections, as might be supposed from his 
extreme sensibility, were very strong and tender. He 
entered with all familiarity into the thoughts and sports 
of his children. His daughter says, "The moment his 
clear and musical voice was heard the children were wild 
with impatient joy to be in his presence ; and then the 
infant was in his arms, the smaller children were climbing 
his knees ; and, in their infantile complaints, no one had 
the power of soothing like himself" 

Dr. Buckminster married, in 18 10, Mrs. Ladd, the widow 
of Col. Eliphalet Ladd. At the same time he left the par- 
sonage, and removed to the house now occupied by George 
Tompson, which was the property of his wife. A year 
later he had a severe illness, which left him in a state of 
debility and mental depression. He preached with diffi- 
culty through the winter ; and on the last sabbath in May, 
1 8 12, administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 
feeling that he should never be permitted to do so again. 
On Tuesday he started, with his wife and two members 
of the church, for Saratoga Springs. A week later they 
reached a retired and solitary inn at Reedsborough, Vt. 
He was extremely ill through the night, which he spent 
mostly in prayer. In the morning he said to Mrs. Buck- 
minster, " My son Joseph is dead." She, supposing him 



Historical Discourse. 63 

to have been dreaming, answered, " No : he was well a few 
days since; and we shall see him when we return." — "I 
have not slept or dreamed," he replied : " he is dead." He 
was right. The son had died, in Boston, the evening pre- 
vious ; and the father followed him before twenty-four hours 
had passed. He was buried at Bennington, Vt., Rev. Dan- 
iel Marsh of that place preaching the funeral sermon. A 
week later, on Friday, June 19, the North Church was filled 
with a mourning congregation. The pulpit, the chandelier, 
and the galleries were draped in black ; while Dr. Parker of 
the South Church, the valued younger friend of the deceased 
pastor, preached an appropriate funeral discourse from the 
text, " But none of these things move me : neither count 
I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course 
with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the 
Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God." 
(Acts XX. 24.) 

A monumental stone was placed upon the grave at Ben- 
nington, with this inscription : — 

" In memory of the Rev. Joseph Buckminster, D.D., 
pastor of a church in Portsmouth, N.H., who died sud- 
denly in this vicinity, while on a journey for health, lOth 
June,. 18 1 2, cctatis 61. He was a fervent and devoted 
Christian, an eloquent and evangelical preacher, a faithful 
and indefatigable pastor, an aftcctionate son, brother, hus- 
band, father, and friend. His bereaved people have erected 
this memorial of his eminent worth and of their tender 
and respectful grief. 

" O ever honored, ever dear ! adieu : 
How many tender names are lost in you ! 
Keep safe, O tomb ! thy precious, sacred trust, 
Till life divine awake his sleeping dust." 



64 Historical Discourse. 

Among Dr. Buckminster's parishioners here were some 
men of special note, of whom it would be interesting to 
speak if time would permit, — Gen. William Whipple, one 
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence ; Judge 
William Parker, a deacon of the church, the father of Bishop 
Samuel Parker of Massachusetts, and the ancestor of Hon. 
John P. Hale ; Col. Eliphalet Ladd, to whom we are indebted 
for the introduction of the pure aqueduct water which adds 
so largely to the healthfulness and convenience of this city ; 
his son William Ladd, afterwards the eminent advocate of 
peace ; Dea. Amos Tappan ; and Mrs. Tappan, a sister of Dr. 
Buckminster, whose unwearied benevolence among the 
poor and neglected, as well as in other departments of 
Christian labor, has consecrated her memory in many 
hearts ; Daniel Webster, who came to Portsmouth in 1807, 
married in the following year Grace Fletcher, and com- 
menced housekeeping in the house on Vaughan Street, 
opposite Raitt's Court, now occupied by Mrs. Robert Gray. 
Mr. Webster was one of the wardens of the North Parish 
in the years 18 14 and 181 5, and removed to Boston in 18 16. 
Rev. Joseph S. Buckminster has already been referred to, 
one of the most gifted and scholarly men that New Eng- 
land has produced. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church in Portsmouth was 
formed in 1B08. Their present house of worship was erected 
in 1827. 

After Dr. Buckminster's death, the church was nearly 
three years without a pastor. This arose from a radical 
difference of views in the parish, which was nearly equally 
divided between the evangelical doctrines held by the 
church, and what was known as " Liberal Christianity." 



Historical Discourse. 65 

Two ministers were invited to settle, but declined, — Rev. 
William Jenks, who became a Professor in Bowdoin Col- 
lege, and Mr. Matthew R. Button. 

In 1 8 14, the church and parish extended an invitation to 
Mr. Israel W. Putnam of Danvers, Mass., to become 
their pastor ; and after some hesitation on his part, in con- 
sequence of the division in the parish, he was ordained, 
on the 15th of March, 18 15. Some of those who did 
not sympathize with his doctrinal views left the parish : 
others remained, and became, in later years, his firm 
friends. The church was united in sustaining him from 
the first. The number of the church at the time of his 
ordination was ninety-seven, — "fourteen males and eighty- 
three females. Of the ninety-seven, fifteen were non-resi- 
dent. The church steadily increased during his ministry, 
and had more than doubled its numbers when he left. 

One of the earliest enterprises of the church, after his 
settlement, was the erection of the Brick Vestry on P^leet 
Street, which was accomplished largely through tlie liberal- 
ity of Gov. John Langdon, an honored member of the 
church. The building was dedicated on the 6th of Au- 
gust, 1817 ; and the fifty-three years of its religious history 
mark a period of rapid increase in the numbers and influ- 
ence of the church. 

In June, 18 18, a sabbath school was established in the 
Brick Vestry. It was afterwards held in Jefierson Hall, 
and included the children of the city, without respect to 
denominations. Dea. Amos Tappan of this church was 
the first superintendent, from 1818 till his death, in 1821. 
Timothy Farrar, also a member of this church, succeeded 
him as superintendent. It seems probable, from the early 
9 



66 Historical Discourse. 

records, that other churches in the city afterwards estab- 
lished separate schools, and that the original union school 
passed under the entire control of this church. This, how- 
ever, was not, strictly speaking, the first sabbath school in 
Portsmouth. Many years earlier, Mrs. Amos Tappan, of 
whom mention has already been made, collected the numer- 
ous negro children in town at her house every sabbath, and, 
with the aid of her daughters, gave them religious instruc- 
tion. This was continued for several years, and constitu ted 
probably, the first sabbath school in New England.^® 

The house of worship of the Middle-street Baptist 
Church was erected in 1828. The society was formed a 
year or two earlier. 

In 1827 and 1828, there was a powerful revival of religion 
in this church and parish, which continued more than a 
year, and led to the addition of more than one hundred 
members to the church. The church and congregation 
had now become so large, that, after careful deliberation, it 
was decided to form a new church ; and the Pleasant-street 
Church was organized, in September, 1828, forty members 
having been dismissed from this church for that purpose. 

Rev. Jared B. Waterbury was the first pastor.^^ He was 
dismissed after three years' service, and Mr. Joseph H. 
Towne was ordained.'*^ He, however, remained only a year 
and a half; and Rev. Parsons Cooke, who succeeded him, 
was pastor less than a year.'*'* The pecuniary reverses 
of the times, with other causes, hindered the success of the 

^•^ Mrs. Lee's Memoir of the Buckminsters, p. 44. 
*" Installed March 18, 1829 ; dismissed March 6, 1832. 
*^ Ordained June 13, 1832 ; dismissed Nov. 7, 1833. 
♦^ Installed May 13, 1835 ; dismissed Dec. 7, 1835. 



Historical Discourse. 67 

enterprise; and in 1836 (July i) the church was dissolved, 
and the members of it united again with this church. 

It was in order to facilitate this re-union of the churches, 
that Dr. Putnam, in 1835, resigned his position, and was 
dismissed (March 15) at the close of just twenty years' ser- 
vice. In that period, three hundred and one members had 
been admitted to the church. 

Dr. Putnam was born at Danvers, Mass., Nov. 24. 1 786, 
was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1809, and com- 
menced the study of law at Salem, Mass. Soon after his 
conversion, in 18 12, the ordination at Salem of the first 
American missionaries to the heathen turned his attention 
to the gospel ministry ; and, after prayerful consideration, 
he relinquished his previous plans of life, and entered upon 
theological studies at Andover. This was his first parish. 

After his dismission from this church, he became, within 
a few months, pastor of the First Church in Middleboro', 
Mass., and remained in that relation more than thirty years, 
till his death. May 3, 1868. 

The First Freewill-Baptist Church in Portsmouth was or- 
ganized Jan. 23, 1832, and was divided and scattered in 1843. 
Feb. 17, 1 85 1, the present Pearl-st. Freewill-Baptist Church 
was formed. Their house of worship was erected in 1859. 
Rev. Edwin Holt was installed seventh pastor of this 
church on the 2d of October, 1836. He had previously 
preached for some months at the Pleasant-street Church. 

In the following year, the old meeting-house, which had 
stood on this spot more than one hundred and twenty 
years, was remodelled, and fitted to serve the parish for 
seventeen years longer. 

A memorable revival of religion was enjoyed under Mr. 



68 Historical Discourse. 

Holt's ministry, in the year 1840, and eighty-five members 
were added to the church. Many of these were heads of 
famihes. Mr. Holt was dismissed March 2, 1842. The 
whole number admitted to the church during his ministry 
was one hundred and eighty. 

Mr. Holt was born in New London, Conn., April 17, 
1805, and was graduated at Columbia College in 1821. He 
commenced the study of medicine, but exchanged that for 
theology when his religious life began, and was ordained 
at Westfield, N.Y., in November, 1827. After a ministry 
of two years there, he was for a time Secretary of the 
Southern Board of Missions, and then pastor of a church 
at Macon, Ga. After leaving Portsmouth, he was pastor in 
New -York City, in Greenland, N.H., and in Madison, Ind. 
He died at Evansville, Ind., June 26, 1854, at the age of 
forty-nine years. He was an eloquent, earnest, and suc- 
cessful minister. 

The remaining five pastors of the church are still living, 
and laboring in the ministry ; and I shall be expected to 
give only the briefest sketch of the history of the church 
in these later years. 

Rev. RuFus W. Clark, eighth pastor of the church, was 
installed here Nov. 16, 1842, and dismissed in November, 
1 85 1. In those nine years, one hundred and fifteen members 
were admitted to the church ; fifty-four of them in the year 
1 843, and twenty-eight in the year 1 849. The whole number 
of the church at the close of his ministry here was three 
hundred and forty-five. Dr. Clark is now pastor of a 
church in Albany, N.Y. It is a matter of regret to us all 
that he is not with us on this occasion. 

The church was without a pastor nearly two years after 



Historical Discourse. 69 

Dr. Clark left. In the spring and summer of 1853, there 
was unusual religious interest among the people. Rev. Dr. 
Lyman Beecher preached here for eight weeks, and many 
of the young were led to the Saviour. Thirty-one united 
with the church in that year. 

Rev. Henry D. Moore, ninth pastor of the church, was 
installed Aug. 17, 1853. In the year 1854, the old church, 
which had stood for one hundred and forty years, was taken 
down, and the building in which we are now met was 
erected upon the same spot. The religious services of the 
society were held in the Temple between the time of leav- 
ing the old church and entering the new. 

Aug. 7, 1855, Rev. Mr. Moore resigned his position here, 
and soon after became pastor of a church in Portland, Me. 
He has since been settled at Pittsburg, Pa., and is now pas- 
tor of the Vine-street Church in Cincinnati. 

This house of worship was dedicated on the first day of 
November, 1855 ; and, on the same evening, Rev. Lyman 
Whiting, tenth pastor, was installed. During his ministry 
here, the great religious awakening of 1858 swept over the 
country, reaching, with greater or less power, every evangel- 
ical church in the Northern States. This church enjoyed 
a share of the blessing, and welcomed forty-two members 
to its fellowship in that and the next following years. 

Dr. Whiting was dismissed in 1859. He has since been 
pastor of churches in Providence, R.I., in Dubuque, Iowa, 
and in Janesville, Wis., which is his present field of labor. 

Rev. William L. Gage became the eleventh pastor of 
the church, Oct. 17, i860. His ministry here was inter- 
rupted by imperfect health, and continued only till Jan. 24, 
1863. Mr. Gage was a graduate of Harvard College, in 



70 Historical Discourse. 

the class of 1853. He has devoted much time to literary 
pursuits, and is the author of several valuable works. He 
is now pastor of the Pearl-street Church in Hartford, Conn. 

The present pastor was installed over this church, June 3, 
1863. There was more than usual religious interest in the 
church and congregation in the years 1864-65, and sixty-six 
members were added to the church ; and also in the years 
1869-70, when ninety-three members were admitted. 

In 1870 the church, with the aid of many members of 
the parish, erected a new and commodious chapel, which 
was dedicated on the 24th of February of the present year. 
An honored name,'^" which it may not be allowable to men- 
tion to-day, is as closely associated with the beginning and 
completion of this chapel, as the name of Gov. Langdon is 
linked with the building of the Brick Vestry. May God 
grant to the prayers and self-forgetting labors of this 
church that the glory of the latter house may be greater 
than that of the former ! Little more in this respect could 
be asked for the church than that the scenes of devotion, 
of penitence, and of faith, upon which the narrower walls 
have looked down, may be repeated, in the larger measure 
of our multiplied numbers, within the more stately edifice. 

The whole number of the names of members of this 
church from the beginning, now standing upon its records, 
is more than seventeen hundred. The lists are imperfect, 
in some of the earlier pastorates ; so that it is probable 
that nearly two thousand of those who call Christ Lord and 
Master have in these two hundred years been identified 
with the body of which we have here traced the history. 
The present number of the church is four hundred and ten. 

^ Miss Mary C. Rogers. Miss Rogers died Aug. 15, 1871. 



Historical Discotirse. 71 

" The memory of the just is blessed." The heroic Hves, 
the Christian self-denial, of the fathers, drawn out into the 
light to-day, send down to us, the living members of 
the clnirch, new impulses to Christian devotion and cour- ■ 
age. They did their work quietly and simply, in their day. 
It was not a period of celebrations and reminiscences. 
They little anticipated the honor with which we recall their 
names at this end of the centuries. They maintained the 
truth as it had been made known to them, at cost some- 
times of personal freedom, at cost often of the esteem of 
men, but with the sure gain of God's approval, and with 
the unfailing joy of conscious loyalty to the truth. 

It is a privilege to be counted in such a succession. It 
is the easier to bear reproach for the name of Christ, or to 
resist the inward foes which assail our Christian integrity, 
when our names stand beneath the names of Moodey and 
of Rogers, of Cutt, of Stileman, and of Haines, and their 
successors in this goodly fellowship, and when the inter- 
ests of the church which they planted and nurtured are 
committed to our fidelity. A thousand sacred thoughts 
and tender recollections touch the hearts and re-enforce the 
faith of all who join hands with those good men. 

The very ground on which we here stand is redolent of 
sacred associations. In these spaces, through which our 
words and our prayers and our songs echo to-day, have 
vibrated the utterances of faithful appeal, of devotion, and 
of praise through five generations of worshippers. Let the 
appeal never be less earnest, or the testimony to the truth 
less faithful ! Let the petitions of devout hearts here rise 
in ever-renewed supplication ! Let new voices, in joyful 
love to Christ, take up the strain of grateful praise. 



72 Historical Discourse, 

till earthly worship shall give place to heavenly adora- 
tion ! 

And now upon this Mother, who for so many of us has 
nurtured in its beginning or in its growth the Christian 
life, to whom we owe under Christ so much of v/hat we 
are and of what we hope to be, and who gives us to-day, 
in the heroic examples of her elder sons, fresh impulses 
to Christian duty and devotion, — upon this ancient and 
honored church we invoke the renewed affection of all her 
children, and the rich gifts of heavenly grace. May they 
to whom it shall be permitted in other centuries to enjoy 
her protection and guard, her interests catch the spirit of 
her most devoted children, and carry forward to larger and 
higher successes that which has been already attained ! 

And may He for whose glory, and for the advancement 
of whose kingdom among men, the Church exists, be pleased 
to bestow upon us, and upon those who come after us. His 
constant guidance and benediction ! 

O thou Shepherd of Israel, thou King of Zion, thou 
Redeemer and Saviour of men ! grant unto this thy church 
the illumination of Wisdom, and the quickening of the 
Holy Spirit. From generation to generation be thou her 
strength. Let no weapon that is formed against her pros- 
per. May many sons and daughters arise up and call her 
blessed ! ^. Let her priests be clothed with righteousness, 
and let her saints shout aloud for joy. 

So WE, THY PEOPLE AND SHEEP OF THY PASTURE, WILL 
GIVE THEE THANKS FOREVER : WE WILL SHOW FORTH THY 
PRAISE TO ALL GENERATIONS. 



y 



An Historical Discourse 

DELIVERED AT THE CEI.EDRATION OF THE 

TWO-HUND-REDTH ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE FORMATION OF 

THE NORTH CHURCH, 

PORTSMOUTH, N.H., 

JULY 19, 1S71, 

Bv REV. GEORGE M. ADAMS, 



CASTOR OF THE CHVRCH. 



PUBLISHED FOR THE CHURCH. 



PORTSMOUTH : 

FRANK W. ROBINSON. 

1871. 



